This kinky game of murder and eroticism is preposterous but never boring. Director Dominic Sena switches from music videos (Sting, David Bowie) to films and shows a keen eye for images that fill a wide screen with beauty and terror. Then the inconsistencies in Tim Metcalfe's script break the spell.

But there is that cast — young, hot and acting for keeps. Juliette Lewis can test your endurance with her insistent drawl and then use it to pierce your heart; she's flat-out wonderful as Adele Corners, a waitress who takes an innocent delight in trying on high heels her ex-con boyfriend Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) has stolen for her. The shoes are still warm from the feet of Early's latest victim, but, shucks, Adele doesn't know he's a serial killer.

Brian Kessler, played by David Duchovny, doesn't know, either. But he's writing a book on serial killers, and his girlfriend, Carrie (the gorgeous Michelle Forbes), is taking the photos. Since the plan is to drive cross-country to California visiting murder sites, Brian advertises for a couple to share expenses on the trip.

Why do these two sophisticates pick trailer trash like Adele and Early as travel mates? Don't look for logic — it's the quartet of actors that keeps you riveted. Pitt is outstanding, all boyish charm and then a snort that exudes pure menace. He and Lewis, once lovers offscreen, play this flapdoodle with enough urgency to make the suspension of disbelief worthwhile.

“He Will Break Your Heart”

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."