two movies in one

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2013)

Hitchcock was the master of the tone change in a film, wrong-footing his audience into thinking they were watching one genre before revealing another. It is a hard trick to pull-off these days, with trailers giving so much away and information overload wherever you look. So it was a delight one night to turn on the TV and come across this film that I had never heard of.
I came damn close to switching the thing off halfway through. The goofy hoods, quick-fire comments, and lame put-downs had me labeling this an under-realized student film. Then it all turns around. Josh Hartnett puts in quite a performance here; his split personality role had me hating his smarmy bonhomie at the beginning, but crying in sympathy at the end.
And I say no more for fear of spoilers. See it cold, and enjoy the journey. For the first 20 minutes I thought "What are this cast doing in this movie?" More fool me.