Overheard is not a ‘wham-bang-thank-you-ma'am' kind of movie. It has foreplay. And works on several different levels.

On one, it is a crime thriller. It is also a cop movie. Throw in friendship, brotherhood, romance with some subtle social commentary and it becomes quite layered indeed.

The first third of the movie is quite good setup for the characters - a team from Hong Kong's police force that specialises in electronic espionage.

Yes, we're talking bugs, hidden cameras, cellphone eavesdropping to even the low-tech dumpster diving to piece together shredded and torn documents.

Their aim is to find any evidence of stock market manipulation or insider information being committed by some of Hong Kong's rich.

The film also illustrates how many cigarettes they smoke (too much) and also internal romances as well as individual, family and relationship problems.

Along the way, the film takes an exciting turn when one of the main characters, Gene Yeung (Louis Koo) - in desperate need of cash for his family - begs the other two, Johnny Leung and Max Lam (Lau Ching Wan and Daniel Wu, respectively) to allow him to use the information they gathered from one incriminating conversation, to invest in the stock market.

His friends are torn between helping a man they consider their brother and their strong sense of justice. As the trio get even deeper into their deception, many things go wrong and their attempts to cover their tracks will soon lead to tragedy.

The acting is excellent, as expected. Lau's performance as the strong, silent police ‘big brother' as well as  reluctant lover is spot on. Wu shines as a cop married to a rich family who has insecurity issues. Meanwhile, Koo milks every drop of sympathy as a caring father and husband who sacrifices everything for his family - especially his son who is undergoing some sort of cancer treatment.

The human drama presented in Overheard is excellent. One scene has Koo behind a grill door as his wife leaves him saying "But ... what about me?". Lau, while not the traditional romantic hero, was sweet in one scene where he gets down on one knee and puts a ring on the image of the finger of his girlfriend, through a glass sliding door.

The film also works as a thriller, though the ‘electronics espionage' element is only represented as the team wearing headphones and watching surveillance tapes. Nothing Enemy of the State techno-voyeur, eye-candy here. That being said, it is more believable than having satellites transform into giant robots and bugs the size of cells being injected into the bloodstream.

The ending was expected, but at least there was a climax.

All in all, a good movie. A thinking man's - or woman's - thriller. A cop movie updated for the 21st century.

And guess what? You can win prizes from the distributor - RAM Entertainment. Grab your copy of Malay Mail today.