Manipulation

The writing and direction here are solid, but unspectacular, and if that were all there was, the movie, too, would be unspectacular. But what drives the entire endeavor is the acting. Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor are among that small group of actors who never give a bad performance, and that's certainly the case here. Michelle Williams, though, is another matter altogether: she is SO good, and SO deep, and SO nuanced, that she rises above what she had been in the past and simply makes this movie her own. Hers is one of those performances (there are two scenes where she delivers voluminous messages simply by a look, without a single word) that make you wholly reevaluate the actor's skill and intelligence; at least, it did that for me: I changed my opinion of her and her abilities, and I won't be able to look at her again in the way I had before. And I like experiencing that, so I like the movie much more for that fact. If you're a Michelle Williams fan, you really HAVE to see this film.

The trailer of this movie looked interesting.

The story is about an accountant Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) who meets Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) – who in turn introduces Wyatt to a secret sex club. Wyatt falls in love with one of his acquaintances S (Michelle Williams) and gets involved in a blackmail by Jonathan who wants Wyatt to transfer a huge sum from a few bank account to Spain. Wyatt does that. Jonathan plants a bomb and kills Wyatt. I will leave the story here and not play spoilt sports.

The story starts with a psychological angle, moves to sexual contours, deceive, and blackmail. The movie moves slowly throughout, gains maximum interest in the deceiving part – holds your attention, but remaining times – it is just a usual dull affair.

Both Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor look great and act well. But the style of narration does not build up that interest to make a great cinema of a good story like this.

First time director Marcel Langenegger does a decent job in delivering a visually good cinema – good closeups, good acting, good music, good movements of camera – I think he has a good eye for making better movies.

I think there is a problem with the scripting of the movie. It takes the first 40 minutes to build the story, and gives 10 minutes of interest and falls back to a mundane thriller.

My rating started from 4.5 at the beginning of the movie, increased to 6.5 when it reached the deceive part, but pulmetted down to 5 by the end of the movie.

(Star 4.75 out of 10)

This movie is supposed to be a thriller, but is unfortunately quite short of "thrills".

My biggest complaint would be the movie's pace - it is very slow, and at times quite boring.

There are far too many implausabilities and plot holes, but even if you suspend your disbelief and just accept the story being told, it's still not a very good movie.

The script just isn't very good.

This is by no means the worst movie ever, however if you're looking for a GOOD thriller, I would not recommend this movie as one.

It's a shame really, because Hugh needs another good movie to boost his career. His last few have not been critical or box office smash hits (save the X-Men franchise), and I'm starting to seriously doubt his ability to pick good scripts. Hopefully "Australia" will turn his sadly not- so-good streak around.

Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is shy Auditor/Accountant who moves from office to office in New York City, working away by himself, crunching numbers, solving problems. His life is dull and his social life is even worse. One night while working late a smooth talking well dressed lawyer named Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) introduces himself to Jonathan, Wyatt offers Jonathan a certain green cigarette and the two quickly establish a friendship and begin to socialize with one another and soon enough, Jonathan is involved in a secret sex club.

Deception is a movie where it attempts to bring back the dying erotic thriller genre and to some degree it works, the concept of this sex club amongst Manhattans elite is intriguing and watching Jonathan gain confidence in himself and doing things he thought he never would makes for quite a watch. The problem is though is that the story/screenplay is paper thin, you will know the plot twists well before they happen and you will question some of the poor decision making and silliness during the film. It's disappointing that the story is weak because the cast is strong and the film is well made. Deception looks sleek and beautiful, the cinematography by the legendary Dante Spinotte is a must see on its own, New York City has never looked any sexier than it does in this film, set decoration is also fantastic and all that is accompanied by an engrossing sound track which fits in perfectly with the film. The actors do a fine job with what they have to work with but again it makes you wonder how good this movie could have been with a better screenplay. I wouldn't quite say Deception is a must see but it's definitely a decent watch on a quiet night in.

The thing is that the plot takes too many turns, so many that the movie ties itself in knots and must resort to a lot of silliness to develop a finale and get out of the whole mess. The early moments are quite involving, showing the nerd-player friendship taking to something scary. Nevertheless, in spite of the good beginning, I figure the two leads have never the chemistry that would explain why they got drawn to one - another, so moments where the viewer would say "OK, everything seems to work" are very rare. The story gets then ridiculous in the end due to many plot twist that poop a film otherwise decent. There's also a cameo of Charlotte Rampling.