Director Mike Figgis (“Leaving las Vegas”) delivers a digitally shot, experimental film, which in plot is a mini “Magnolia,” as the lives of four LA people — in the biz — intertwine, intersect and collide. The big innovative gig is that all four stories unfold simultaneously in different quadrants of the screen — that’s right, four frames of drama on the screen for the entirety of the film – and its all done in one continuous take. Jeanne Tripplehorn plays a brassy moneybag in an obsessive relationship with Salma Hayek’s sultry aspiring actress; Stellan Skarsgård is the big time talent movie executive she’s having an affair with and the sensual Saffron Burrows is his estranged wife. Each life fills a frame in real time action. The result is a little overwhelming on your senses, but it’s uncannily engrossing.
