Synopsis: Stone dexterously knits together the parallel journey of two men struggling with dark whim, as the line between a lawman and lawbreaker becomes perilously lean. Parole officer Jack Marby (Robert De Niro) is assigned with Gerald “Stone” Creeson’s (Edward Norton) case who puts his wife in the lawman’s way in order to manipulate the officer.Description: A convicted arsonist, who is up for parole, tries to influence a parole officer by arranging his sexy, casually decadent wife to seduce the officer.

Review: One thing good about this movie is that it fails to meet expectations of a cheesy Hollywood thriller, where the antagonist is a devious evil character in every sense of the word that might be acting out his despicable contrivances below the radar, but instead brought forth the unexpected which can be considered the strength of the film.

Norton and Jovovich’s acting really carry the weight of the film. Again, Norton gives an astounding performance that will keep us completely rapt all the way. Jovovich, in her own exceptional way, is also remarkable in an intricate role, not only sexy and seductive but pretty considerate as well. De Niro, on the other hand, follows up his rebound performance in Everybody’s Fine with an even more encrusted and nuanced one here.

The only problem might be that the film unfolds rather slowly. It deliberately drags in the beginning, starting off with a flashback scene that couldn’t be fully understood until its conclusion, although most are made that way. With that said, the climax makes up for the drab scenes; if indeed there are any.

The film makes exercise our sense of judgment in aspects of pardon and redemption. At the end of the day, we find it amazing to see the unseen, or rather the typical behavior we literally deny and therefore examine ourselves about it. We can make use of a mirror, may it be one made of melted sand, or one that is shown behind it– if you still have a CRT screen.