Movie review: ‘Deception’ is deceivingly inept
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Apr 28, 2008 at 3:40am
By Matt Martin
The blandly titled Deception is a generic thriller with little to recommend it except for some known actors (Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams, etc.) in the cast. It promises danger and kinky sex, but serves up silliness and boredom instead.
Directed by TV commercial helmer, Marcel Langenegger, from Mark (Live Free or Die Hard) Bomback’s screenplay, Deception stars McGregor as Jonathan McQuarry, a mild-mannered corporate auditor in New York, who meets Wyatt Bose (Jackman), a magnetic, charming corporate lawyer (or maybe not). Bose introduces McQuarry to the decadent secret world of the Big Apple’s elite, which includes “The List,” a sex club. McQuarry signs on, beds several women, falls for a mysterious stranger known as “S” (Williams) and ends up over his head in a world of betrayal and murder.
The plot twists are so silly Deception eventually stumbles over its own feet. Too often you’ll find yourself wondering “What the …?” instead of involved in the story. Jackman oozes dangerous charismatic charm, but even he can’t believably pull off a climatic scene in which he has to unload a ton of exposition (which still doesn’t successfully explain everything). McGregor seems adrift as the nebbish everyman too quickly seduced by sex and drugs. Williams appears (understandably) bored. And actresses such as Natasha Henstridge, Maggie Q and Charlotte Rampling are wasted in embarrassing cameos as women on the List.
Characters in Deception must ask “Are you free tonight?” to engage in the “intimacy without intricacy” sex of the List. But if you’re free, find something better to do than go to this moribund B thriller.
Deception is rated R for sexual content, language, brief violence and some drug use. Running time: 108 minutes. Macsimum rating: 4 out of 10. You can check out the film’s trailer on the QuickTime movie trailer site.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
