Deception (R) ** | Nerd gets girl, nerd loses girl . . .
Posted on Fri, Apr. 25, 2008
BY ROBERT W. BUTLER
The Kansas City Star
JONATHAN WENK
Jonathan (Ewan McGregor) is drawn to the many charms of a woman he knows only as "S" (Michelle Williams).
A generic thriller with a generic title, Deception is so predictable you could guess what happens next even if the trailer hadn't already given away just about every important plot development.
Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is a gray, colorless CPA who moves from corporate headquarters to corporate headquarters, spending a week auditing the books before moving on to his next gig.
He's got a bad haircut, nerdy glasses, a closet full of identical bland suits and few social skills.
So when he's befriended by a slick executive of one of those companies, Jonathan responds like an abused dog who's finally found someone to scratch him behind the ears.
Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) is everything Jonathan is not: dashing, personable and irresistible to women. Soon he sucks the dweeby accountant into his lush life -- including a secret club in which high-powered women with no time for romance have anonymous sex with the likes of Wyatt, and now Jonathan.
The numbers cruncher can hardly believe his good luck. Almost every night he's got an available woman calling to set up a rendezvous. Some are drop-dead gorgeous (Natasha Henstridge), some are older women who have wisdom to impart of both a sexual and intellectual nature (Charlotte Rampling).
But the one who grabs Jonathan's heart is a baby-faced blond he knows only by her initial: ''S'' (Michelle Williams). He's so smitten with ''S'' that they spend their first night together just talking.
And then she vanishes, apparently kidnapped. And Jonathan is told that if he wants to see ''S'' again, he'd better start dipping into the secret slush funds of the company he's auditing.
Who could be behind it? Gee, let's see . . .
As scripted by Mark Bomback and directed by first-timer Marcel Langenegger, Deception is good looking and completely empty.
It's got pacing problems, too. The plot proper doesn't kick in until 45 minutes have passed, and elements that might have been amusing -- like the sexual demands now placed on the grievously inexperienced Jonathan -- go unacknowledged. For lightweight fluff, Deception takes itself way too seriously.
The plot, which recycles elements we've seen too many times before, is overly reliant on coincidence and has more holes than a country road stop sign.
If you haven't seen a thriller in the last decade, perhaps Deception will take you by surprise. For everyone else it's a long, slow case of deja vu.
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams
Director: Marcel Langenegger
Screenwriter: Mark Bomback
Producers: Robbie Brenner, David L. Bushell, Christopher Eberts, Hugh Jackman, John Palermo, Arnold Rifkin, Marjorie Shik
A Twentieth Century Fox release. Sexual content, language, brief violence and some drug use. Running time: 105 minutes. Playing at area theaters.
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