David O'ConnellHugh Jackman's Deception
December 15th 2008 05:08
Though it lives up to every clichéd expectation, Deception proves to be an entertaining, sleek thriller with a vibrant, cool look and competant performances from its lead actors. Making his feature debut, director Marcel Langenegger is able, for the most part, to maintain the intrigue of screenwriter Mark Bomback’s depressingly familiar set-up.
Ewan McGregor is corporate accountant, Jonathan McQuarry, a quintessentially boring man, devoid of both affectation or creative inclination unless numbers are involved. Thus, he’s a ripe target for a suave, persuasive extravert – Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) – a powerbroker and his polar opposite who suddenly takes a keen interest in his life, soonafter indoctrinating him into his social set. Alarm bells should be ringing but Jonathan is hypnotized by the mysterious Wyatt, who uses his alluring mystique to maintain Jonathan’s curiosity about life beyond the call of numerical duty.
After another invigorating outing, their mobile phones get mixed up, and with Wyatt conveniently departing on overseas business, Jonathan is left holding his new friend’s device with no way of arranging a swap-back.
Soon the phone begins ringing with the voices of women asking him if he's free and providing a rendezvous point. Intrigued and giddy with the prospect of nameless sexual encounters, he attends in place of the expected Wyatt. His first contacts within this upper-class sex club - based on “intimacy without intricacy” - are women played by Natasha Henstridge and Charlotte Rampling.
It’s during this time that Wyatt drops out of sight but like an evil puppetmaster his presence is still felt, lurking on the fringes as we wait for the penny to drop and the first horrible confirmation of his murky motivations to emerge.
The impersonal physical encounters are a primal and voyeuristic thrill for Jonathan until he makes a fatal mistake – falling for one of his ‘dates’, a woman (Michelle Williams) who had first caught his eye during a chance meeting at a train station - a fatalistic glance flaunting with dangerous fixation that had him fantasizing about her identity. Into his arms, via Wyatt’s magic phone 'book', she now falls, and his imagination begins a full-tilt gallop into wild speculation again, the beautiful blonde at the centre of his lustful imaginings.
Slowly the pieces of Wyatt’s puzzle begin to materialize like the sinister clues they are, Jonathan’s life becoming ensnared by the intricate web of deceit the once-benign stranger has woven around him. There’s no turning back for either as the stakes are raised, and Langenegger turns his attention to making Jonathan as sympathetic a protagonist as possible, a good man forced into amoral doings by evil manipulation.
Jackman’s role, whilst atypical of his past characters, isn’t much of a stretch for him but he imbues the devious Wyatt with enough charm and charisma to convince us of the depth of his powers of persuasion.
McGregor is perfectly cast as the timid and easily manipulated accountant whose bland and soft exterior must quickly assume a hard edge if he’s going to outwit a man with seemingly superior guile and resources, and save the life of a woman he has an unreasonable crush on.
The film’s most redeeming characteristic can be attributed to Dante Spinotti’s meticulous cinematography with its striking mix of colour, light and space, giving the eye of High Definition an almost transparent, glossy look at times.
Ultimately a cheap and throwaway thriller with annoying implausabilities attached, Deception at least prolongs interest with a couple of decent twists, until the all too predictable final showdown when good takes on evil at its own game - for a shot at freedom and a Barbie doll!!
Ewan McGregor is corporate accountant, Jonathan McQuarry, a quintessentially boring man, devoid of both affectation or creative inclination unless numbers are involved. Thus, he’s a ripe target for a suave, persuasive extravert – Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) – a powerbroker and his polar opposite who suddenly takes a keen interest in his life, soonafter indoctrinating him into his social set. Alarm bells should be ringing but Jonathan is hypnotized by the mysterious Wyatt, who uses his alluring mystique to maintain Jonathan’s curiosity about life beyond the call of numerical duty.
After another invigorating outing, their mobile phones get mixed up, and with Wyatt conveniently departing on overseas business, Jonathan is left holding his new friend’s device with no way of arranging a swap-back.
Soon the phone begins ringing with the voices of women asking him if he's free and providing a rendezvous point. Intrigued and giddy with the prospect of nameless sexual encounters, he attends in place of the expected Wyatt. His first contacts within this upper-class sex club - based on “intimacy without intricacy” - are women played by Natasha Henstridge and Charlotte Rampling.
Jonathan (Ewan McGregor) quickly falls under the influence of Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman)
It’s during this time that Wyatt drops out of sight but like an evil puppetmaster his presence is still felt, lurking on the fringes as we wait for the penny to drop and the first horrible confirmation of his murky motivations to emerge.
The impersonal physical encounters are a primal and voyeuristic thrill for Jonathan until he makes a fatal mistake – falling for one of his ‘dates’, a woman (Michelle Williams) who had first caught his eye during a chance meeting at a train station - a fatalistic glance flaunting with dangerous fixation that had him fantasizing about her identity. Into his arms, via Wyatt’s magic phone 'book', she now falls, and his imagination begins a full-tilt gallop into wild speculation again, the beautiful blonde at the centre of his lustful imaginings.
Jonathan's biggest mistake is pushing the boundaries of anonymity with a woman known only as S (Michelle Williams)
Slowly the pieces of Wyatt’s puzzle begin to materialize like the sinister clues they are, Jonathan’s life becoming ensnared by the intricate web of deceit the once-benign stranger has woven around him. There’s no turning back for either as the stakes are raised, and Langenegger turns his attention to making Jonathan as sympathetic a protagonist as possible, a good man forced into amoral doings by evil manipulation.
Jackman’s role, whilst atypical of his past characters, isn’t much of a stretch for him but he imbues the devious Wyatt with enough charm and charisma to convince us of the depth of his powers of persuasion.
McGregor is perfectly cast as the timid and easily manipulated accountant whose bland and soft exterior must quickly assume a hard edge if he’s going to outwit a man with seemingly superior guile and resources, and save the life of a woman he has an unreasonable crush on.
The film’s most redeeming characteristic can be attributed to Dante Spinotti’s meticulous cinematography with its striking mix of colour, light and space, giving the eye of High Definition an almost transparent, glossy look at times.
Ultimately a cheap and throwaway thriller with annoying implausabilities attached, Deception at least prolongs interest with a couple of decent twists, until the all too predictable final showdown when good takes on evil at its own game - for a shot at freedom and a Barbie doll!!
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