In the 1950's, Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth) are the most popular entertainers in America. Lanny is the comedian and Vince is the straight man. They know how to make audiences roar with laughter at their jokes, or cry at one of their polio telethons. The pair is a favorite of Sally Sanmarco (Maury Chaykin), a mob boss who owns nightclubs up and down the East coast. He makes sure they have anything they want. The "anyone they want" is handled by Lanny's man-servant, Reuben (David Hayman). At the top, wealthy, and powerful, then something terrible happens to threaten their success. A dead beauty Maureen (Rachel Blanchard) turns up in their hotel suite. Their reputations are tarnished, but with perfect alibis neither is charged with the crime. Their partnership, unfortunately, is destroyed. Lanny and Vince manage to create separate careers. As the years pass, neither speaks to the other or to anyone else about the girl's death. The reason for the break-up of Morris and Collins becomes one of show business' greatest mysteries.
Then in the 1970's, writer Karen O'Connor (Alison Lohman) decides to turn this mystery into a hot story. Karen discovers a kinky menage-a-trois that may have led to murder, and unravels a shocking tale of love and lust, buried secrets, treachery, and betrayed trust. She persuades a publisher to offer Vince one million dollars to collaborate with her on writing the untold story of his life with Lanny. Karen hears that Lanny has written his own tell-all book, and flies to New York to meet her publishers. On the plane she comes face to face with sleazy Lanny himself and learns the truths are more complicated and dangerous than she thought. The story is fairly confusing and the movie is OK, but a lot of the plot is devoted to hiding the fact that Vince is gay. And the film is tepid, the sex is unconvincing, the mystery lacks a sense of danger, and the resolution is not shocking. The voice-overs and flashbacks are mostly confusing and distracting. Colin Firth is miscast, Kevin Bacon is alright, but Allison Lohman is a boring heroine. Mychael Danna composed the original music, Atom Egoyan wrote the screenplay derived from Rupert Holmes' novel, and also directed.
