Lumet's complex and atmospheric thriller is based on a real event. Pacino is superb as the neurotic and incompetent gay bankrobber who needs the money from the robbery to finance his lover's sex change operation. The film's beauty is it's closely detailed psychological observation. Excellent.

A strange, beautiful film. We watch mother and son as they go about their peculiar daily routine, and we see a dead child in the ocean. It's unnerving and, somehow, everything seems eerily sexual, too. Then we are invited to go underwater where we get a closer look at the strange story science and earth have to tell. There are only mothers and sons in this coastal town. There is routine and control - but who is in control and what happens if someone starts to ask que find out more...

An excellent black comedy, handsome thriller and a tall story that keeps you guessing as it unwinds. The genuinely ridiculous plot (a man pays a couple of goons to 'pretend' to kidnap his wife in order to get his paws on his in-laws' 'ransom' money) is completely credible as mighty plans fall apart, spiralling ever more beyond the protagonist's control and leaving us marvelling at the complex stupidity of human nature. A modern classic.