Dangerous Liaisons and Mamet-ish manipulations are the meat of James Toback’s lean morality play in which, astonishingly, Neve Campbell emerges as an actor of clout. Toback taps a typical vein of high talk, low intrigue and even gets away with a Mike Tyson cameo. In a carnal con-movie set-up, Campbell is Vera, a rich New Yorker whose slick hustler boyfriend wants to sell her for a night. But Vera’s none-too-keen and begins riffing her way to some table-turning.
On the plus side, Campbell takes to her part-improvised turn with real city-smarts and slink. By contrast, Toback strains too hard for effect, from his nuddy-Neve shots and wordy script to seriously hobbling plot contrivances. There’s pleasure to be had in watching Vera take the reins, but none of this resonates outside of the moneyed world it depicts. Alas, unloveable.