But the two lawyers were once a senior attorney and a law clerk in the same firm — where they had a sexual affair.

How much of that old affair was consensual and how it will color the current suit are the issues in this problem/morality/character drama.

The pluses in this production are its two strong leads, who mostly re-examine familiar character terrain. Nemoto is the older man — self-confident, self-satisfied and secure in himself. Stamp is the younger woman — tough, edgy and bright. As they verbally duel, she opens a perspective that he has been unable to see and reveals her own unpleasant history that has not healed.

But the central characters spend an inordinate amount of time telling each other what they already know, in an inelegant way of providing back story for the audience. Next, they are sophomorically self-indulgent in analyzing their current feelings, probing themselves and each other in what might pass for a late-night undergraduate bull session.

But when Stamp's character reinterprets the history of their past failed relationship in a way that Nemoto's character has never considered, the plot gets interesting.

Plot interest also comes from a layer-by-layer revelation of their clients' prospective testimony in the coming lawsuit. Perry Mason style, each has depth below its casual appearance.

Nemoto's character has also structured their meeting as a romantic dinner on the beach, complete with food served up by an unusual chef and three acts centered on appetizer, entrŽe, and dessert.

James McCarthy adds welcome relief to the leads' penchant for serious introspection with his portrayal of a French chef who deflates everybody's serious self-absorption.

But too much of the dialogue sounds like a poor soap opera script, and the woman's revelation of her childhood molestation rings like a cheap shot from any number of poor movies made for television.

Still, the central question is nevertheless intriguing. Did the young woman have a real choice when an office superior invited her for lunch, then dinner, then his bedroom? And if the roles were reversed, what would be the reaction of a male similarly propositioned?