This movie is a perfect example of how bad writing can make good actors look inept. The writing is downright laughable. Most of the lines would make even hardened soap opera fans squirm, I suspect. Despite that, there's a kernel of a decent movie here. Some rewrites and a change in lead actors would have helped a lot.
I think the director was aiming for film noir, but ended up with something altogether less. There are a good number of talented mid-level recognizable Hollywood faces in this, but the lead, James Oliver, makes his bad lines even worse. Gil Bellows, William Atherton, D.W. Moffett and a good number of others are severely wasted here. The rest do what they can with a mediocre situation.
Slow pacing, muddled and pointless story lines make this a movie to not waste time with.
They should have called this movie "Hey, It's a Paycheck."