Nobody's perfect. Not the devoted wife, the supportive brother, the bookie in love or the cop on the take -- all with assorted gambling problems -- who populate "Even Money." Not award-winning "On Golden Pond" director Mark Rydell, who's betting that screenwriter Robert Tannen has an ace up his sleeve with his first published screenplay. Not even co-producer Danny DeVito, who laid his money on the project and his reputation on the line in a key role.

		'Even Money' Starring: Kim Basinger, Forest Whitaker. Director: Mark Rydell. Rating: R for language, violence and brief sexuality. Opens at Destinta Bridgeville.

They and a Hollywood insider cast that includes the usual suspects -- Kim Basinger, Kelsey Grammer, Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Jay Mohr and Tim Roth -- had an inside line that the suspenseful hidden-character indie would pay off in an artistic achievement rivaling, well, "The Usual Suspects."

Nobody's perfect, but "Even Money" comes close. Each of several intersecting stories and their principal actors are strong enough to carry films of their own. Basinger and Liotta are paired as a loving couple betting their marriage against a gambling addiction. Whitaker is outstanding as a local handyman manipulating his brother to shave college basketball points. Mohr and Grant Sullivan, a former Brentwood resident, are minor bookies betting their lives and loves against the interests of more sophisticated players. Grammer is almost unrecognizable as a rumpled detective with mob connections, DeVito is a small-time magician with big-time dreams, and Roth is a vicious gangster enforcing the will of elusive mob boss Ivan.

The stories intersect at a championship game that everyone knows has been fixed by Ivan. Or has it?

Tannen raised the stakes by hoping to re-create the misdirectional magic that writer Christopher McQuarrie conjured in "The Usual Suspects." As I read the cards, it's close but no cigar. But with an inside track and a cast like this, it may be worth gambling this review against your instincts at the box office.