Pretentious and slow for sure. But the leads made it work, and guess what? the movie stayed with me for days which is an achievement. Jagger is always tough as an actor and I would guess 50 percent would say he pulled it off, 50 percent would say he's lousy. Sutherland seemed to be enjoying himself which is a treat. I read the book like 20 years ago and remember it being a nice pulpy noir story. This film seemed to exercise most of that charm. But hell if it didn't make a mark with me and have me digging for the old paperback.