This is not a bad movie, but it sure doesn't greet the viewer in any expected way. You're not given any hit about who to like or who is the bad guy, so if you get stuck trying to figure that out it's going to make the movie less enjoyable. Although it's twisty plot makes you think that's what it's all about, you really have to approach it as a character-driven piece. Even the characters you end up disliking (I found Mars Girl annoying to no end) are played well, so you can't really fault the actors for how it doesn't all quite come together. I found myself *wanting* to like the movie more, but I felt a little too isolated as a viewer to care that much.

Although I did give this film a high rating, I was unsatisfied with the ending.

Jack (Matthew Lillard) is a slick con artist who drops in on Max (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Jamie (Valerina Golino), two small time crooks and wannabe con artists. You can tell pretty early on from quick flashbacks that most of what he says is a bunch of lies (don't worry, that's not a spoiler - they make that very clear in the first twenty minutes of the movie). He needs their help to carry out an illegal transaction, something which they have never done before. Max, a raging hot head, looks down his nose at Jack, but Jamie realizes that with their financial troubles, they don't have much of a choice.

All three lead characters give terrific performances as low life criminals, and Lillard is better in this film than I have ever seen him before. Golino, who I am not familiar with, and the always excellent D'Onofrio are great as a paranoid couple. The characters may seem too shallow for some, but they required a great deal of intensity that I doubt most A-list actors could muster, especially D'Onofrio's borderline-psychotic Max.

Here are the spoilers.

I enjoyed the movie, but I thought the ending was a bit unrealistic and predictable. Not bad, mind you - it was ok. But Jack just drops in as a mysterious lying stranger, and you can tell that he will most likely win in the end; you've never seen a film quite this odd before, and yet, it still seems cliche` somehow. Jack was also a tad bit on the slimy, spineless side, and Jamie and Max's paranoia seems like it would have been assets to them rather than hindrances. The fight scene at the end was also poorly choreographed and hard to swallow - Lillard simply can't look as mean and tough as D'Onofrio, not to mention that D'Onofrio's character was meaner as well.

Aside from this, it is worth renting if you are into violent movies with plot twists.