A cagey, claustrophobic noir thriller highlighted by a few clever plot twists, some nicely- honed dialogue, and a half-dozen top-notch performances.

Events are minor and they unfold slowly. The audience has plenty of time to get ahead of the game.

Spacey makes interesting work out of an otherwise overdone situation.

Spacey's deft directing can't offset a script that wants to be Chinatown and ends up as indigestible chop suey.

The tension revs along nicely and - if you're not heisted out already - there's some suspense to be had.

Spacey makes an honorable and intelligent helming debut with less-than-dazzling material.

A character study with underdeveloped characters.

A workmanlike effort. It's not startling and it's not incompetent.

The character relationships are solid and there's blessed little in the way of smug, smart talk

Pretentious and show-offy, the noirish drama fairly reeks of film-student overkill.

The set decor is more intricate than any of the characters.

Spacey does what can be done with the material, but it never achieves takeoff velocity.

With its jazzy saxophone noodlings during the opening credits and its bruised black-and-blue look, it's so quaintly and conventionally pulp that you feel like filing a report with the cliché police.

Could have been a decent psychological portrait; it ends up being a fairly weak thriller.