Witnessing a murder, Rick Santoro, a young courageous and intelligent detective, who during attending an important boxing match, witnesses a murder, the thing that challenges him, as he finds out a big conspiracy.
Never loses its bearings as it hovers between preposterous paranoia and a Billy-Wilder-like moral fable about a deeply flawed hero who draws a line in the sand beyond which he cannot go.
Aside from a sensational, continuous 20-minute opening take, and an amazing shot that literally swoops over the top of a row of hotel rooms, there's little of interest here.
Director Brian De Palma does his stylish best to weave the patchy script into a cinematic quilt, but despite his best efforts -- and they're often formidable -- the thing just doesn't cohere.
A moderately suspenseful thriller that seems somewhat conventional compared to De Palma's earlier envelope-pushing efforts. Intriguing, but the mystery villain is rather obvious from the start.
TV Guide
September 18, 2008
Brian De Palma's exercise in flashy paranoia and shallow cynicism comes out of the gate like gangbusters, but falls apart in a flurry of preposterous plotting.
