The dying gaul

Peter Sarsgaard stars as Robert Sandrich, a fledgling screenwriter who has been living on the fringes, writing spec script after spec script to no avail. His life changes when he is offered a million dollars for his latest and most personal work - "The Dying Gaul," the raw, autobiographical story of the death of his lover. But there's a catch - the studio thinks the project will be much more commercially viable if Robert will only change the dead lover to a woman.

Making the offer is Jeffrey (Campbell Scott), a smooth, ruthless and sexually avaricious studio executive who seduces Robert with the intoxicating Hollywood cocktail of power, money and sex. Patricia Clarkson stars as Jeffrey's wife, Elaine, a former screenwriter now ensconced in a Malibu villa with children, a housekeeper, and time on her hands. She brings the grieving Robert into the family fold, drawn by his talent and his pain. When Robert confides that he finds solace, both sexual and emotional, in the ghost-like world of chat rooms, the curious Elaine meets him there anonymously. As their online dialogue unfolds, she discovers that Robert and her husband are having an affair. The shock of that revelation - and the unexpected way she responds - sets off a dangerous series of deceptions, confessions and betrayals. Never sliding into the conventional histrionics of the thriller, The Dying Gaul is infinitely more complex, as the lines between predator and prey, sadist and victim shift and blur.