Let's get the bad news over first. David Mamet is struggling here with the limitations of the heist genre. The many twists and turns in a complex plot stretch credulity, and leave you confused. The dialogue is characteristically sharp-edged and forthright, but too much is left unsaid as to why characters act as they do. Characterisation, which Mamet is a master of, is in danger of being steamrollered by plot.

That said, in spite of a nagging sense that everyone is going through the motions, this still raises the blood pressure from time to time, particularly in the face-offs between the characters.

Career thief Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) heads a slick gang of four robbers. After years of evading the law, he gets his face caught on the surveillance camera during a jewelry job. Time to get out of town with his recent bride Fran (Rebecca Pidgeon).

There is one problem though: his fence Micky Bergman (Danny DeVito) refuses to pay Moore his share of the jewelry heist until he completes one last big score, "The Swiss Job". What's more, Bergman insists on his thugish nephew and loose canon Jimmy Silk being part of the team.

It's a strong ensemble cast, although they only get a chance to shine intermittently. Hackman as arch strategist (so cool, "when he goes to bed, sheep count him,"), always several steps ahead of everyone else, does his growly thing. Danny de Vito in full sleazeball mode as a two-faced, foul-mouthed and unscrupulous opportunist - makes a change from the usual tough-guy mob boss.

Mamet may have started the film with higher ambitions, but ultimately this tale of double-crossing, bluff and general sheistering comes across as a potboiler by his standards. Don't expect too much, and you wont be disappointed.