Diggs and Askew have a nice, easy chemistry as Simon and Marcus. So do Mohr and Wolf, both giving their best performances anywhere. Polley is a much better actress than Ronna requires, and she invests the flat character with real vitality. Katie Holmes is extremely appealing and has a wonderful face for the camera, although even she can't quite bring Claire to life as anything more than a piece of scenery. I also liked Olyphant's scuzzy charm as the drug dealer, and William Fichtner as a cop with some very strange ulterior motives.
Liman directs with zest, energy, and inventiveness.
He's basically putting on a juggling act here. Without a script or characters quite as clever as Swingers , he has to keep the plot contrivances, Tarantino-esque dialogue, and a handful of players in the air without dropping one of them, lest we see the holes in this movie. And we do, toward the end, when the balls finally hit the floor. But along the way there's a lot to enjoy and remember. There's also enough cinematic skill at work here to make us hope Liman tries to stake his own terrain next time.