Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) is a slick publicist who uses people without the slightest twinge of guilt. He's a fast talker who excels at making deals and exchanging favors with those who will make him look good. In the opening scenes of this drama set in Manhattan, Stu is on his cell phone wheeling and dealing. Occasionally, he barks out orders to Adam (Keith Nobbs), an aspiring p.r. agent who is his unpaid flunky. After dispensing him on an errand, he steps into a pay phone to make a call to Pamela (Katie Holmes), an aspiring actress who is the present source of his romantic fantasies. This ploy is to make sure that his wife, Kelly (Radha Mitchell), can't trace the call. Stu, you see, is a very deceptive man whose natural metier is lying and cheating. He doesn't even bat an eyelash when a man delivers a pizza to him while he's on the phone to Kelly; in no uncertain terms, he humiliates and degrades the fellow as if he were a gnat to brushed aside.
The tables are turned on Stu when he picks up the ringing phone in the booth and finds that he now is the pawn of a psychopath who has a gun with a telescopic lens trained on him. The sniper already knows a lot about the p.r. agent and finds him to be a despicable human being. This power-hungry man has already shot two others who did not measure up to his high moral standards — a German porn king and a corrupt executive. The sniper is appalled by the incredible damage Stu has done to both Pamela and Kelly with his "sin of spin."
The caller's tirade rocks the publicity agent, and his cool is shaken further when the sniper shoots and kills a pimp whose hookers are upset with Stu for not letting them use the only phone on the block. Soon the police arrive, and Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker) tries to figure out what is going on. With police sharp-shooters surrounding the scene, the media arrive and make Stu into an instant celebrity.
Joel Schumacher (Tigerland) directs this psychological thriller about a self-centered cad, who is brought face-to-face with his terrible treatment of people, including the woman he loves most. "My two thousand dollar watch is fake and so am I," Stu Shepard is forced to confess to the moral vigilante watching him, who savors every moment of controlling this wayward and vulnerable young man.
The taut and suspenseful screenplay by Larry Cohen is bolstered by split screen effects and the convincing vocal characterization of Kiefer Sutherland as the psychopath who enjoys tormenting his prey and making witty comments about him and a world gone amuck.
