stevechristian

Expert Rating:

4

(2008)  Rated R, for sexual content

Hugh Jackman
Michelle Williams
Ewan McGregor
Directed by Marcel Langenegger

For a good while "Deception" has the guilty-pleasure and allure of an openly sexist film.  Kind of a cross between "9 1/2 Weeks" and "Fatal Attraction." Eventually, though, it collapses into such a ridiculous pile of plot twists and double crosses, there's nothing pleasurable about it- guilty or otherwise.

The director is first-timer Marcel Langenegger, who's working from a script by Mark Bomback ("Live Free or Die Hard"). Together they've come up with one of those movies in which supposedly smart people do incredibly stupid things, and all you can do is stare at the screen and shake your head in disbelief. An accountant is introduced to a mysterious sex club known as "The List" by his new lawyer friend. But in this new world, he soon becomes the prime suspect in a woman's disappearance and a multi-million dollar heist.

Ewan McGregor puts on a hammy New York accent to star as a lonely, naive accountant whose life consists of working late nights. Hugh Jackman is all charisma and expensive suits as the lawyer who introduces him to a secret, executive sex club. Michelle Williams, glammed up to look like Gwyneth Paltrow, plays the femme fatale caught in the middle of a deadly scheme.
 
Did I say "scheme"? Yes.  Deceipt?  Yes. Somewhere in this malaise of a story is a scheme. We wonder about it. We hope for its infliction upon the script. But alas, there is no real aparatus to get us into a good film.  None. Nothing. It is, above all- average. Sad for what it could have been.