I'm surprised there are so many really good reviews of this movie. It really wasn't THAT great. I viewed it on late night cable and honestly, I'm glad I did, as I don't think it's something I'd want to pay money (other than the cable bill) to see.
I will give it credit in that it is suspenseful and generally entertaining. In fact, it was all good until the end, when we find out what is going on, and when what can only be called giant, gaping plot holes are revealed.
(WARNING: SPOILERS FROM HERE)
For example, we discover in the end that many of characters are in fact desperate NYC actors who were hired by the main character's secretary to psych him out. At first glance, it seems implausible that all these actors are willing to be on-call twenty-four seven and are able to improvise their parts flawlessly for the entire length of the movie without really questioning why they're doing what they are; however, I guess it could happen, so I suppose you could suspend your disbelief.
However, it gets a bit ridiculous at the end of the movie. David Lamont (the main character) and the detective (who isn't actually a detective, but an actor playing one) get into this fist fight as Lamont thinks the detective is the killer and the detective tries to act the part by trying to kill Lamont. For some reason, though, at no point during this 5- 10 min fight scene, does the actor playing the detective stop trying to kill Lamont, even as he is being beaten, battered, and eventually, thrown down a flight of stairs to his death. This one is hard to swallow. I realize the character is suppose to be a desperate out of work actor, but none of the actors I know are so desperate that they would actually risk their lives in a death match and try to commit murder all for that big break. I'm pretty sure in the real world, after the first punch was thrown, any sane individual would say "screw this, I'm going back to waiting tables." The guy has plenty of opportunities to walk away, but even after he is seemingly knocked unconscious, he gets back up and continues to lunge himself at Lamont until his untimely end.
The movie proceeds downhill from there, as Lamont decides instead of calling the police, as any rational person would do, he will take the body to a farm and hack it into pieces to feed to the pigs. However, I'm thinking "isn't this guy suppose to be a mystery novel agent? Surely he must realize that although it may "look" like he is guilty of the murders in the movie, modern forensic science combined with decent detective work could likely implicate the real killer (and that by covering up, he's only making it 100 times worse?)"
All in all, I think I would have actually enjoyed this movie if only it had a plot that was a little bit more feasible. It had all the elements of a good movie - good acting, sets, suspense - in my opinion, however, the unbelievable script, let it down in the end.
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