In writer-director Neil LaBute's debut feature film, a pair of thirtysomething white-collar businessmen, embittered by their shallow lives and bad experiences with women, target and romance a beautiful deaf secretary (Stacy Edwards) solely for the purpose of dumping her and thus gaining revenge on her sex. While one of the junior execs, Chad (Aaron Eckhart), is relentlessly cold-blooded and cruel, his partner, Howard (Matt Malloy), proves to be a spineless tagalong. When their manipulative game ends, one of them is in for a shocking surprise.
Touted as "the most controversial film of the year" upon its release in 1997, this articulate black comedy sparked a roiling storm of praise and loathing from critics and audiences alike. Eckhart, a college friend of LaBute's, became the primary lightning rod for these passionate, widely varying responses, winning an Independent Spirit Award for his performance while also fending off occasional verbal abuse from angry women mistaking him for the reptilian character he plays. The film unapologetically depicts appalling behavior but never condones Chad and Howard's actions, making it one of the most intriguing and memorable movies of the late 1990s.
