A full-blooded British attempt at a film noir thriller, complete with a seemingly watertight murder case with a detective (disgraced cop Liam Neeson) as number one suspect, who just happens to be having an affair with the number two suspect. Is one of them setting the other up to take the rap? Is neither of them guilty? They certainly both look and act as if they are, but that's just two of the possible red herrings floating around. Kenneth Cranham is the detective on the case and looks as if he doesn't believe a word he has to say. There's the germ of an interesting idea here, but it falls over itself in its attempts to be devious, dragging out its ending instead of shattering us with the final revelation. Neeson and Hollywood's Laura San Giacomo approach adequacy, but in the end the film falls victim to some British films of the period in which it's set - by letting melodrama have its head. And even the illusion of sinful Brighton in the 1950s is ruined by a modern telephone box in one scene. By the final prison gallows sequence, you'll either be on the edge of your seat with excitement or rolling around the floor in uncontrolled mirth.

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