Underrated performance by Cusack and Huston.

A nasty film, but a very good one. John Cusack and Angelica Huston are fine.

It's amusing, but there doesn't seem to be much of a plot.

No character is as competent as they think they are in this story. It's a real downer, but worth watching once.

Yeah, see that was when i knew Popeye or at least when i knew he wasn't feeling well

A very interesting form of narrative used. Anjelica Huston gives the absolute best performance of her career.

Benning annoys me, as usual, but it has a certain charm.

This elegant, witty film's got Bening and Huston at the top of their games. Frears directs it with such a fresh hand and enjoyable pace that every single twist feels like a tour-de-force for everyone involved.

Must rewatch.

The film can't decide if it's a neo-noir, a true noir lifted right out of the 50s with the added rauchiness of an R-rating, or just a drama about some con artists, and that hurts the development of characters and themes, like the coalescence of the female leads. Also, Cusack turns in a terrible performance, when he's not playing himself he's a caricature of a hard-boiled type, complete with the vocal affectation.

Question: How can you make a good movie about grifting without some kind of plot swerve? Answer: You can't. It's akin to playing a football game without calling any pass plays. Sure, you can do it, but the result is boring & nowhere near as entertaining & fulfilling as it could have been

Frears' best American-set film.

This thoroughly engrossing neo-noir thriller boasts a tight script with some of the most deliciously twisted characters and pitch perfect acting from both Huston and Bening.

Set in the sunlit, but definitively noir Los Angeles underworld, this powerful drama depicts a shadowy landscape that is unmistakably the creation of pulp writer Jim Thompson whose novel is the source for this quirky excursion into scamming, suspicion, sex, and seduction. Frears and Westlake have negotiated this malevolent mine field with high style, taut suspense, and black humor. The entire cast is perfect especially Huston, Cusack, and Bening. Produced by Martin Scorsese.

average

Huston gives one of her very best performances as a strong lady who can con almost everyone but herself. Her manner on the screen in this picture and in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors'' marks Huston as the one contemporary actress who comes closest to having the power of classic female dramatic stars of years past.

I felt it was an impossibility I would not love this, but well... Been a while since I saw it, but I remember huge disappointment, like, I didn't even like it. Maybe needs a rewatch.