The thing is that the plot takes too many turns, so many that the movie ties itself in knots and must resort to a lot of silliness to develop a finale and get out of the whole mess. The early moments are quite involving, showing the nerd-player friendship taking to something scary. Nevertheless, in spite of the good beginning, I figure the two leads have never the chemistry that would explain why they got drawn to one - another, so moments where the viewer would say "OK, everything seems to work" are very rare. The story gets then ridiculous in the end due to many plot twist that poop a film otherwise decent. There's also a cameo of Charlotte Rampling.

Ewan McGregor never convinces as a meek accountant (who actually admits to sleeping with only four women in his entire life!) whose cell-phone is switched with that of a swinging New York City lawyer (Hugh Jackman, also none-too-convincing with a hack American accent). The accountant allows himself to be submerged in the high toned-yet-seamy lifestyle of the lawyer until he's set up to be the fall-guy in a crime. Continually disappointing, derivative, unimaginative thriller filmed in washed-out winter-blues and grays, crippled by an endlessly-protracted finale. With a seemingly large budget and talented actors in the cast (including Charlotte Rampling--still beautiful in her later years), blame for the picture's failure must fall on Mark Bomback's ridiculous screenplay, which could have been penned by any student just graduating film school. *1/2 from ****

Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is a shy and lonely auditor moving from one office to the next. Late one night, he is befriended by charismatic Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). They get their phones switched and Jonathan gets a call from a mysterious woman (Natasha Henstridge). He spends the night together with her. Next he meets an older woman (Charlotte Rampling) who explains the sex club rules. The next woman (Michelle Williams) is someone he has seen before and he's in love with her, believing her name starts with S. The next time they meet in a hotel. He's knocked out and S disappears. The blood stain is gone and he calls the police. Detective J. Russo (Lisa Gay Hamilton) has nothing to go on. He discovers that Wyatt is a fiction and he's blackmailed into stealing money from dirty accounts in the company. He gets a call from Tina (Maggie Q). She knows Wyatt as Jamie Getz who possibly killed investment banker Rudolph Holloway.

There is one moment when this movie goes from intriguing to improbable. McQuarry picks up the phone and Russo's card. I kept thinking that he should call the cops and I was actually impressed that the movie would do exactly that. Instead of calling Russo, he impersonates Russo to get information from the cops. It's mind-boggling. Wyatt's threats boil down to hurting S but for all McQuarry knows, she's part of his scheme. So he does something illegal and easily trackable to save a woman he barely knows. Michelle Williams is gorgeous but I can't buy that she's that intoxicating. Nobody is Helen of Troy and nobody is that dumb. The plan is completely unlikely to work but the movie forces it to work. The final twist tries to salvage the movie by doubling down but it doesn't work. It's nice to see these actors but this is all about the plot points.