HAVE 'CONFIDENCE' - YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

CROSSES DOUBLE, triple and quintuple course through ``Confidence'' like a David Mamet steroid nightmare.

Did that sound too negative? Wasn't meant to, because this underworld scam-a-ganza can be a lot of brain-tickling fun. It is, however, mainly mechanics with none of the philosophical depth or character insight Mamet brings to his wool-pulling capers.

Nor is there much hint of originality here, as first-time screenwriter Doug Jung cheerfully pilfers motifs from ``Sunset Boulevard,'' ``Pulp Fiction,'' dozens of noirs and even ``Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'' What's there, though, is pleasingly well-organized.

And director James Foley has a sure, seasoned hand with this kind of stuff (he even made the best Mamet-play-into-film, ``Glengarry Glen Ross''). With the help of a hit-and-miss cast that he brings up to top group speed, Foley evokes a redolent sense of SoCal seediness while always keeping the plot one or two steps ahead of an engaged audience's predicting capacities.

The usually wooden Ed Burns carries the movie authoritatively as Jake Vig, leader of an itinerant band of grifters (Paul Giamatti, Brian Van Holt) that pulls the wrong switcheroo on the wrong mob accountant.

When one of them turns up dead, Jake goes to the party responsible, Winston King, an attention-deficit disordered underworld boss played with intrusive comic energy by Dustin Hoffman. To pay off The King, Burns commits his crew to pulling a risky, and insanely complicated, international banking swindle.

This effort is further jeopardized by the requisite recruitment of shifty femme pickpocket Lily (``The Mummy's'' Rachel Weisz, trying on a wide assortment of fatale designs), a couple of corrupt L.A. cops (Luis Guzman, Donal Logue) and an obsessive, bad-tie-and-hat wearing FBI agent (Andy Garcia) who's been stalking Jake across the continent for years. Among numerous other dangerous and untrustworthy interlopers.

Yes, it's convoluted. Indeed, it is preposterous. But ``Confidence'' is never less than suspenseful, and it's hard to say that it cheats much on any of the seemingly endless curves it keeps tossing. And there are enough neat little throwaway bits - about con artist superstitions, cops' persuasively prosaic reasons for turning crooked, how to really make friends in a bar, sister acts and more - that you come out feeling you've gotten a little more for your money than plot mechanics.

``Confidence'' can make you feel good about being played for a sucker.

CONFIDENCE - Three stars

(R: violence, nudity, language, sex)

Starring: Ed Burns, Rachel Weisz, Andy Garcia, Dustin Hoffman.

Director: James Foley.

Running time: 1 hr. 38 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: Fun brain stimulant, though devoid of any deeper resonances.