When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, the two must turn the tables on him to save their families.
Chicago advertising executive Charles 'Chaz' Schine is mentally worn down by his useless teacher wife Deanna and their equally ingrate daughter Amy, whose bad diabetes requires experimental, uncovered treatment that would exhaust their life savings. When foxy investment adviser Lucinda Harris volunteers to pay his ticket when he arrives on the commuter train without cash, they soon start an affair. Taking her to a tacky hotel, they are held at gunpoint by thug 'Frencie' LaRoche, who rapes her having knocked Chaz down, robs their wallets and calls him afterward, blackmailing a small fortune not to tell his wife. Paying through equally abusive Dexter only incurs more demands and abuse, until Chaz brings along ex con office mail boy Winston Boyko, who promises to scare LaRoche away, but is shot by him., leaving Chaz to deal with the corpse and police detective Church, a friend of Winston's. Only when bled dry, Chaz finds out Lucinda is a stolen identity, part of an elaborate setup. His ill-planned vengeance, as lawyer friend Jerry sees no legal way without timely complaints from him and Lucinda, starts a cycle of bloodshed and other unpleasant surprises for most involved.—KGF Visser
Charles is worn down by his home life where he and his wife struggle to cope with the demands of their daughter's illness and his job. When he meets Lucinda on the train to work in Chicago, there is an immediate spark between them. Soon they are doing lunch; dinner and drinks follow. This leads to an adulterous rendezvous in a hotel. However, no sooner have they torn each other's clothes off than their room is invaded by a thief who beats Charles and rapes Lucinda. Because of the illicit nature of their relationship, Charles agrees with Lucinda who is reluctant to go to the police and soon finds he is powerless to resist the demands of the thief.—[email protected]
In Chicago, while traveling in a commuting train from the suburbs to downtown, the publicist Charles Schine meets the married executive Lucinda Harris and starts a conversation after an incident with him. Charles is married, has a worn out marriage with his wife Deanna Schine and they have been saving money for years for their diabetic daughter that needs a transplantation of kidney associated to a new expensive experimental drug. A couple of days later, Charles invites Lucinda for lunch, then for some drinks and finally they begin an affair and decide to go to a cheap hotel. The room is invaded by a thief, Laroche, who steals the couple and rapes Lucinda. A couple of days later, Charles is blackmailed, but Lucinda is reluctant of going to the police since she does not want to lose the custody of her daughter. When Laroche menaces Charles' family, the executive tries to solve the problem and the situation gets completely out of control.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Charles Schine (Clive Owen) is a Chicago advertising executive, whose tale is being written down by an unidentified man in a prison cell.
A flashback of several months shows Charles with his wife and teenage daughter. Charles's marriage with his wife Deanna (Melissa George) is deteriorating, and his daughter Amy (Addison Timlin) suffers from type 1 diabetes, requiring expensive medication. Charles has taken a 2nd mortgage on the house to get a dialysis machine as Amy requires frequent blood detoxification. Despite all the care, Amy suffers from frequent seizures at any time of the day, and hence cannot be left unattended at any time.
Charles is removed from a $130 million account for the agency as the client Susan (Rachael Blake) did not like that Charles changed the ad campaign after Susan signed off on it. Charles tries to argue that he has 10 years of experience in the job and knows what he is doing, but Charles's boss agrees with Susan to save the account.
On a commuter train, Charles encounters an alluring woman named Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston). Charles forgot to take a ticket at the station and did not have $9 in cash on him to buy the ticket in cash. He is told to get off at the next stop, but Lucinda steps in and offers to pay for his ticket. Lucinda is a married financial adviser, with a daughter. A mutual attraction develops, and the two begin meeting frequently on their commute to work by taking the same train every day. Charles checks out Lucinda's profile on her company website and she checks out just as she described her work profile, although there are no photos of Lucinda there.Soon they are doing lunch; dinner and drinks follow. Charles calls Deanna that he is stuck at work, as he has dinner with Lucinda. As the night progresses, Charles kisses Lucinda passionately. Ultimately, they decide to consummate their affair and wind up in a seedy hotel.
Just as they are removing each other's clothes, an armed man- later identified as Philippe LaRoche (Vincent Cassel)- bursts into the hotel room, beats Charles (and knocks him unconscious), and brutally sexually assaults Lucinda. LaRoche also takes away Charles' credit cards.Charles and Lucinda agree not to report the crime, as they do not want their spouses to learn of the affair. Charles tells Deanna and his boss at work that he got mugged. Charles cancels his credit cards.
Shortly after, Charles is blackmailed by LaRoche, who threatens to kill his family if he doesn't pay $20,000. Charles meets Lucinda who says that if her husband finds out, he will file for divorce and take her daughter away from her. Lucinda offers to share the payment to LaRoche, but Charles refuses as he still feels guilty and responsible for the sexual assault.Charles takes the money from their savings (he had a little less than $22,000 in savings), goes to the meeting point, and hands over the cash, but LaRoche again assaults him, saying it's because Charles had canceled his credit cards which LaRoche had stolen.
A month later, the attacker calls again, this time demanding $100,000.Charles tells his situation to his work colleague Winston Boyko (RZA), an ex-con and a mail-room person at his company, about LaRoche and asks for advice. Winston offers to scare LaRoche away in return for 10% ($10,000) of LaRoche's demand. Charles embezzles the $10,000 from his employer. However, LaRoche shoots Winston dead. Charles dumps the car with Winston's body into the river.
Charles is questioned by detective Franklin Church (Giancarlo Esposito) about Winston's murder and gives a false alibi. Later, he receives a call from LaRoche: He has Lucinda at gunpoint and will kill her if Charles doesn't bring the $100,000 immediately. Charles takes the money from an account meant specifically for his daughter's medical treatment. The payoff complete, he and Lucinda say a tortured goodbye.
When he stops by Lucinda's office and asks for her, he is shown a woman who is the actual Lucinda Harris. The woman whom he met on the train is really Jane, a temporary employee, who was impersonating Lucinda. Charles realizes Jane was in on the scam. He reaches her apartment, which is now being shown to new prospective renters, and discovers that Jane's photograph of her purported daughter is actually a cut-out of a stock picture from a brochure.
He tracks her down and sees her kissing LaRoche.Determined to retrieve his stolen $100,000, he follows Jane's moves and sees that she has suckered another unsuspecting businessman named Sam (David Morrissey). He returns to the hotel where Jane, LaRoche, and their partner Dexter (Xzibit) are setting up their new mark. Charles knocks LaRoche unconscious outside the hotel room door, disarms him, and bursts in, telling a confused Sam the scheme he has been set up for. Dexter arrives to back up LaRoche and when Sam tries to jump Charles a gunfight ensues, with everyone shot but Charles, who coldly watches Jane die and then returns to his room. He convinces the police who have been called in that he was just a bystander. As he leaves, Charles claims his briefcase from the hotel safe and gets back his stolen money.
Back at his office, Charles finds his embezzlement has been discovered, and he is sentenced to six months of community service, teaching in a prison. During one of his classes, he comes across a notebook containing a story which relates all that has happened to him and leads him to find LaRoche, who had survived the gunfight and is one of the prisoners. Swearing revenge for the death of Jane, LaRoche threatens to continue to disrupt Charles' life, but Charles reveals that he has planned their encounter and stabs LaRoche to death with a shank he had smuggled in.
Charles walks away from the encounter by claiming to Detective Church that LaRoche attacked him and he reacted in self-defense. He returns to his family.
