There is a lesson about narrative tricks and overuse in here, and I think many could learn from it. Fool the audience once, that's impressive, fool them twice and you begin to push the boundaries of "clever" and tread into the realm of mild annoyance. By the third time, it's so telegraphed and predictable that you've lost all spark and also end up dulling the sharpness (heh) of the initial uses of the technique. Sharper does exactly this, and by the final hoodwink it's so obvious what it's doing that it collapses the house of cards they've built to this point. [spoiler]Julianne Moore's character claims to be a professional conwoman, but can't seem to see one of the most telegraphed plays in the whole movie right before her eyes? All integrity is lost, and the wrap up feels rushed and unsatisfying. [/spoiler]

What begins as a slick, contemporary social-heist-thriller (what a mouthful) quickly devolves into a very predictable romp that doesn't feel satisyfing under the weight of the first two acts. Not a bad film by any means, but doesn't sort out the threads in the final act to jump to the 7 or 8 out of 10 territory. Fair, but could have been so much more.