Based on Jim Thompson's A SWELL LOOKING BABE, HIT ME is about a bellhop - Sonny - getting involved in a scheme to steal $500,000 from high-end, illegal poker players. The swell looking babe is a French girl, Monique, and Sonny thinks his share of the money will allow him to start a new life with her. That isn't going to come easily. Monique is unreliable, hooked up with the criminals, and has suicidal tendencies. Hell, the path of love never does run smooth, does it?

As in the book, Sonny is an interesting character, fuelled by three fucked-up elements - his love of Monique, his hatred of his job, and his refusal to accept help to care for his retarded adult brother, Leroy. Sonny is over his head in it all, and once the heist goes pear-shaped, he's frantically scraping around to try a make it clear with the gal, the money and Leroy.

Elias Kotsas (who also features in 2010's superior Thompson adaptation THE KILLER INSIDE ME) does a decent job playing Sonny. He looks a lot like Robert De Niro and effectively gets across one of De Niro's big skills - playing desperate psychosis. At times this can veer into comedy, and it's unclear whether this is always intentional. Kotsas acts emotions very physically - mock-humping the air before he goes into Monique's room and pepping himself up by jumping through four different positions before meeting the main poker player. After a while this does become trying, but the character is interesting enough to stay around for.