With the right audience He Was a Quiet Man might well play as black comedy. But Slater, disappearing into his role, brings a note of earnest desperation to his performance that's hard to laugh at, and hard to look away from.

It's dark and too relentless for the comedy it would like to be.

A real oddity of a film: a satire of corporate office despair.

In this audacious crime caper, written and directed by Frank A Cappello, Slater finally gives a leading-man performance that delivers on his early promise.