ONE night at McCool's bar, three men become embroiled with one sultry vixen.

Bartender Randy (Matt Dillon) runs into the aptly named Jewel (Liv Tyler) after work.

She is having an argument with her boyfriend and Randy steps in to prevent a punch-up. Within a matter of hours, the pair are in bed and Jewel is moving her stuff in.

Randy's lawyer friend Carl (Paul Reiser) meets Jewel at a barbecue and is immediately dazzled.

He fantasises about an affair, and Jewel seems all to keen to stoke the flames of his desire.

Meanwhile, Detective Dehling (John Goodman) is called to McCool's to investigate a suspicious death.

Randy is the chief suspect, but Dehling is much more interested in Jewel, who bears all the hallmarks of a battered girlfriend. Or is that just an act she's putting on to worm her way into Dehling's affections?

One Night At McCool's is Harald Zwart's feature film debut and he's produced a black comedy which plays fast and loose with the audience's expectations.

The plot cuts back and forth between the three men's stories, replaying the same scene from their differing perspectives.

Stan Seidel's riotously funny screenplay is laden with countless laugh-out loud moments and visual gags.

Only at the close do you realise his genius, using the opening 80 minutes as the set-up for a final reel punchline guaranteed to bring the house down.

Tyler really comes of age as the scheming beauty who uses her smouldering sexuality to play the three men off against one another.

In each strand, she plays a different version of the enigmatic Jewel: the devoted girlfriend and home-maker, the wanton seductress and the fragile porcelain doll beaten by the man she loves.

Dillon, Reiser and Goodman are effortlessly entertaining as the three stooges undone by Jewel's ruse.

Michael Douglas, who also produces, delivers a delightful supporting turn as an ageing hit man who sees Jewel for the master manipulator she truly is.

Sexy, smart and sinfully entertaining.