This film about a botched heist finds Philip Seymour Hoffman at his wretched best as a pleasure-hungry payroll specialist who begins his life of crime by siphoning checks and graduates to robbing his own parents. And that's just the first half hour—things deteriorate from there. The acting is superb, the plot is relentless, and pity and fear crash through in successive waves. It's unadulterated nihilism from 83-year-old director Sidney Lumet. (See Movie Times, page 88, for details.) ANNIE WAGNER