2008 Woodie Awards
No 'Deception' here: a by-the-numbers thriller
Boredom abound in first film from main star Hugh Jackman's new production company
Alex Plimack
Arts | 4/24/08
What makes "Deception" so ultimately unsatisfying isn't the fact that the poor dialogue could have been written by a middle-school playwright and that the acting is stiffer than a corpse in Antarctica. Rather, it's the fact that the actors are so blatantly bored with their performances that they don't exactly elicit a positive response from the audience.
Ewan McGregor is accountant Jonathan McQuarry, who bounces from one big fancy corporation to another doing audits. Working late one night at a law firm, he meets successful lawyer Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). The two smoke a joint, a friendship blossoms and the out-going Bose shows McQuarry just exactly what he's missing being a nerdy number cruncher.
But before Bose jets out of town on a business trip, he "accidentally" switches phones with McQuarry. The next day, McQuarry receives the cryptic call of a female asking "Are you free tonight?" He meets up with the voice on the other end of the line, and quickly finds himself initiated in the "sex club" of which Bose is a member that promotes string-free hook-ups for the upper-class elite who are too busy slaving over their high-paying jobs to focus on relationships.
And "Deception" quickly shows its stripes. It's simply nothing more than a soft-core porn with a bigger budget. Sure, there's the thriller aspect when McQuarry learns that Bose might not be exactly who he says he is, but it's such a contrivance of a plot element that it does little to contribute anything significant to the film. It's a one-note, by-the-books attempt at being clever with the plot. And considering the scriptwriter Mark Bomback doesn't have anything worth mentioning to his name, it really comes of no surprise.
Directed by first time director Marcel Langenegger, "Deception" reeks of freshman mistakes. He employs this awkward zoom in "dramatic" scenes that is truly a baffling technique. While it can be assumed that he's doing it to focus on the characters, it's more distracting than it is effective. George Lucas did the same thing with the "Star Wars" prequels. And we all know how that went for him and his directing reputation.
And speaking of "Star Wars," McGregor does his best Hayden Christensen impression, as his acting is on par with Christensen's take on Anakin Skywalker. It's like he didn't even make an attempt to disguise his accent, as his natural Irish dialect slips through way too often. Jackman has a stupid shit-eating grin in all of his scenes that's supposed to imply the smugness of Bose, but simply continues the one-note identity of the film. Oh, and Michelle Williams is in the movie too: Talk about a forgettable performance. Now that's someone who definitely didn't want to be there.
It's nice to see "Deception" try to take a sociological phenomenon (commitment-less relationships) and attempt to craft a story from it. It's very Hitchcock, but does nothing to even try to reach his level of ingenuity.
The only deceiving that occurs is that of the audience.
Where did my two hours go? And how can I get them back?
Ewan McGregor is accountant Jonathan McQuarry, who bounces from one big fancy corporation to another doing audits. Working late one night at a law firm, he meets successful lawyer Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). The two smoke a joint, a friendship blossoms and the out-going Bose shows McQuarry just exactly what he's missing being a nerdy number cruncher.
But before Bose jets out of town on a business trip, he "accidentally" switches phones with McQuarry. The next day, McQuarry receives the cryptic call of a female asking "Are you free tonight?" He meets up with the voice on the other end of the line, and quickly finds himself initiated in the "sex club" of which Bose is a member that promotes string-free hook-ups for the upper-class elite who are too busy slaving over their high-paying jobs to focus on relationships.
And "Deception" quickly shows its stripes. It's simply nothing more than a soft-core porn with a bigger budget. Sure, there's the thriller aspect when McQuarry learns that Bose might not be exactly who he says he is, but it's such a contrivance of a plot element that it does little to contribute anything significant to the film. It's a one-note, by-the-books attempt at being clever with the plot. And considering the scriptwriter Mark Bomback doesn't have anything worth mentioning to his name, it really comes of no surprise.
Directed by first time director Marcel Langenegger, "Deception" reeks of freshman mistakes. He employs this awkward zoom in "dramatic" scenes that is truly a baffling technique. While it can be assumed that he's doing it to focus on the characters, it's more distracting than it is effective. George Lucas did the same thing with the "Star Wars" prequels. And we all know how that went for him and his directing reputation.
And speaking of "Star Wars," McGregor does his best Hayden Christensen impression, as his acting is on par with Christensen's take on Anakin Skywalker. It's like he didn't even make an attempt to disguise his accent, as his natural Irish dialect slips through way too often. Jackman has a stupid shit-eating grin in all of his scenes that's supposed to imply the smugness of Bose, but simply continues the one-note identity of the film. Oh, and Michelle Williams is in the movie too: Talk about a forgettable performance. Now that's someone who definitely didn't want to be there.
It's nice to see "Deception" try to take a sociological phenomenon (commitment-less relationships) and attempt to craft a story from it. It's very Hitchcock, but does nothing to even try to reach his level of ingenuity.
The only deceiving that occurs is that of the audience.
Where did my two hours go? And how can I get them back?
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