David Duchovny's oddly diffident personality is ideally used here as he grabs one of his best movie chances as a drug-addicted doctor who is struck off.

By a chance encounter, he gets a second chance he doesn't exactly welcome courtesy of crazed gangster Timothy Hutton, who takes him on the payroll as his personal surgeon.

This character-driven thriller is surprisingly tense, intelligent and involving, and Duchovny's fine performance is backed up by equally distinguished work from the ever underrrated Hutton.

Angelina Jolie is also well used as Hutton's femme fatale-style girlfriend Duchovny is soon dangerously lusting after.