Linklater has hardly been a slacker this year. I'll take the tricky confrontational babble of Tape over some of the gauzier soliloquies in ''Waking Life,'' but either way, he's a filmmaker in love with the music of talk, and let's bless him for that.

Linklater must have recognized a kindred spirit when he read Belber's play. He's given us a reality-fantasy game, a psychodrama, a harangue, and a detective story all rolled into one.

Emphasis on its combustible emotions, suspense and surprising humor should help draw sophisticated audiences who, once lured, will quickly find themselves hooked for the duration.

This is what great dialogue -- and by extension great movies -- is made of.

The writing, acting and direction are so convincing that at some point I stopped thinking about the constraints and started thinking about the movie's freedoms.

Smart, unpredictable, and alive with the energies of actors who clearly are enjoying being stretched by their material.

A super-taut and superbly acted three-character piece.

No wonder Hawke was so hot to pass the script onto Linklater. He's superb, by the way.

Thoroughly engrossing.

None of the characters emerges as very sympathetic.

In portraying this threesome, Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman give the most psychologically acute performances of their film careers.

The movie takes shape as an entertaining psychological armwrestle between rank belligerence and blustery condescension.

Linklater keeps it lively with imaginative camerawork and razor-sharp editing.

Hawke is the movie's revelation.