DECEPTION (2008) is one of those films that fares better after the brouhaha surrounding its release has dies down: catching for free on television probably adds to the positive response if the viewer has never even heard of the film! So, in that vein, DECEPTION is a smooth thriller populated by a fine cast of actors who manage to keep the audience with them as the various aspects of this maze of a film at first confuse and then satisfy. Writer Mark Bomback impresses and director Marcel Langenegger shows promise, but it is the work of the three main characters, with some VERY strong support form fine actors in cameo roles, that makes this thriller tick.
Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is an accountant whose world needs to be precisely organized - and boring - and excludes any form of diversion or unexpected excitement. Until handsome and debonair 'lawyer' Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) appears on the scene. The two strike up a strange 'guy-thing' relationship: Bose introduces McQuarry to tokes and women and then accidentally exchanges cellphones with the spaced out McQuarry. Probably for the first time in his life McQuarry notices a young lady (Michelle Williams) in the subway and without an exchange of more than a few words of direction he becomes obsessed with her. Meanwhile Bose is off to London, leaving McQuarry to discover the cellphone connection to a sex club: call a number, ask if they are busy, meet them, and have a wholly anonymous liaison - following the strict rules of the club. McQuarry responds to some of these calls and discovers a world that includes such beauties as Charlotte Rampling, Natasha Henstridge, Paz de la Huerta, Maggie Q...and incidentally, 'S' - the moniker assumed by Michelle Williams. McQuarry and 'S' connect on a higher level and it is at this point that Bose returns and the deceptive scheme for 'altering auditor books' to shift millions to Bose is presented to McQuarry as the only way he will see 'S' again. From then on nothing is as it seems, entanglements become knots, bad things happen, and the only saving grace is the manner the film ends just shy of the happy-wappy manner....until the final frames betray the taste of the movie.
DECEPTION is not a great film, but it is a good diversion as a thriller that keeps you thinking. McGregor, Jackman, Williams et al (especially a cameo detective performance by Lisa Gay Hamilton) give fine performances - and that alone is refreshing enough to stay with the movie to the end.
Grady Harp
Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is an accountant whose world needs to be precisely organized - and boring - and excludes any form of diversion or unexpected excitement. Until handsome and debonair 'lawyer' Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) appears on the scene. The two strike up a strange 'guy-thing' relationship: Bose introduces McQuarry to tokes and women and then accidentally exchanges cellphones with the spaced out McQuarry. Probably for the first time in his life McQuarry notices a young lady (Michelle Williams) in the subway and without an exchange of more than a few words of direction he becomes obsessed with her. Meanwhile Bose is off to London, leaving McQuarry to discover the cellphone connection to a sex club: call a number, ask if they are busy, meet them, and have a wholly anonymous liaison - following the strict rules of the club. McQuarry responds to some of these calls and discovers a world that includes such beauties as Charlotte Rampling, Natasha Henstridge, Paz de la Huerta, Maggie Q...and incidentally, 'S' - the moniker assumed by Michelle Williams. McQuarry and 'S' connect on a higher level and it is at this point that Bose returns and the deceptive scheme for 'altering auditor books' to shift millions to Bose is presented to McQuarry as the only way he will see 'S' again. From then on nothing is as it seems, entanglements become knots, bad things happen, and the only saving grace is the manner the film ends just shy of the happy-wappy manner....until the final frames betray the taste of the movie.
DECEPTION is not a great film, but it is a good diversion as a thriller that keeps you thinking. McGregor, Jackman, Williams et al (especially a cameo detective performance by Lisa Gay Hamilton) give fine performances - and that alone is refreshing enough to stay with the movie to the end.
Grady Harp