If the circumstances that propel Max and Karen together feel contrived and even garish, the fact that they end up in bed together doesn't. The connection between Snipes and Kinski isn't forced, and Figgis does a solid job building that connection from the initial discreet glances and tentative displays of friendliness to the attraction that, finally, neither tries to hide. It may sound sentimental that they're motivated more by feelings of isolation than by lust, but the way Snipes and Kinski play it, it doesn't feel sentimental. There's now an added gravity to her beauty that, if anything, makes her vulnerability even more touching. Especially since, as she plays Karen, it's a vulnerability without protective resources.
Snipes is stuck in some of the movie's worst scenes.
There is some truly terrible comedy with Snipes having to deal with the family dog sniffing his crotch when he returns home, and some even worse moments when he has to show his contempt for his bourgeois co-workers at a dinner party he throws with his wife. But Snipes does a good job of underplaying Max's increasingly urgent unhappiness with his life and career. He's very believable as a talented guy who gets caught in the velvet trap of a lucrative job. What's most enjoyable about watching him though is simply that he gets to be a star here. I may be wrong, but I don't think an American director working for a major studio would have thought to cast a black actor in this role without trying to make some arbitrary statement about race.