hit me and steven shainberg ( secretary ) directorial debut have a lot go for it include a great cast and a truly striking set to utilize . unfortunately and the story be utterly ridiculous . the first half hour be a long and draw out affair i guess to establish elias koteas character and who seem to be nothing more than a series of tick . we find out he have a brother who be mentally retarded and and the state want to take away and but elia will not let them happen . on the verge of lose his job at a two star hotel and he become involve in an incident ( which i would not reveal here ) that be so muddled and so badly play out and so unbelievable that i find it hard to believe that the rest of the motivation of the character in this movie and rest on it . if the source material ( a jim thompson novel ) be unclear and shainberg certainly do not make it any clearer which lead to the main character enter into a heist for truly inane reason . it hard to get excite about a heist when the reasoning behind it be virtually nonexistent . yes and there be heist for the sake of heist and often that work fine but this film spend a lot of time and energy try to establish some reason for this to take place and but fail to convince . good film noir and relies on amoral men and sexual woman and desperate desire . hit me which claim to be a film noir be simply desperate for a good story and a strong execution .