Soft Deceit

The title of this film is taken from lines in William Blake's "Eternity" that, along with some production characteristics, are of top-flight quality, unfortunately impeded, as too often is the case, by a screenplay filled with incident and dialogue that are not slightly believable at any point. The plot of the Canadian made picture relates of Adam Trent (Patrick Bergin) who, with two accomplices, relieves a diocesan vault of over six million dollars in laundered organized crime funds, but despite his arrest and sentencing, Adam refuses to reveal the location of the cash, resulting in a politically and mob motivated police organized prison break supervised by undercover detective Anne Fowler (Kate Vernon), the object of which is for Trent to lead authorities to the loot; however, Anne naturally falls in love with Adam, enormously complicating events. Along with painfully banal dialogue, so many flaws in continuity and lapses in logic run through this work that one very soon wishes it were over, in spite of earnest efforts by Vernon (who obviously savours the overmuch time-spinning soft porn footage) and Nigel Bennett as Ed, a Trent confederate, with acting honours going to Krista Bridges in her brief rôle as Ed's girl friend, while the polished cinematography and thematic scoring are submerged in company with the Blake based title by an overweening lack of imagination in writing and direction.

The movie is a Canadian production, and more of an indie production than a polished Hollywood production. That is to say, the budget wasn't there. Some may agree that this makes the movie more interesting, while others will certainly disagree.

I liked the ending. I will NOT reveal what happened, so as not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it.

There is a steamy sex scene that should hold your attention. Not much bare skin is revealed, but there is no doubt as to what is happening.

I must point out that the dialog seems forced and unnatural much of the time, but I stayed with this movie until the end, and I'm glad I did. Thanks IFC for daring to show movies that wouldn't otherwise be shown on the small screen.