Deception 2008

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Deception collapses into such a ridiculous pile of plot twists and double crosses, that there's nothing pleasurable about it -- guilty or otherwise. It tries to deceive us into thinking it makes sense. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: As thriller storytelling, however, Deception cannot get enough of the obvious. Each major story revelation is so flagrantly telegraphed, when the revelations arrive they're more like fax confirmation sheets of what already came through. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: You don't have to be a genius to find yourself several steps ahead of this helpfully titled mystery thriller. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Everyone, including Madrid, looks terrific, but Deception delivers on no other level, except perhaps as a guide to various New York hotel rooms. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: From the nondescript title on down, Deception is a movie made to be forgotten. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Deception is kind of like the Oscars. Both plod lamely at the beginning, milking inane dialogue, before trying to squeeze far too much into the last little bit. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Calling your terrible crime thriller Deception is like naming your bad cooking movie Food -- an advertisement for laziness. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Deception would be laughably bad if it weren't so rotely inert. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Deception recalls the fantasies of Showtime's soft-core series Red Shoe Diaries. It's often tastefully laughable. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Deception is one of those films that leave you feeling vaguely dirty and wholly unsatisfied, a distasteful and wholly unbelievable mix of soft porn and obvious duplicity that holds not one ounce of emotional truth. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Everything is wrong pretty much from the start of this misbegotten adventure in Adrian Lyne territory, including but not limited to the strained mind games that drive the plot, and the tentative New York accents on the actors from Australia and Scotland. Read more

Sam Sweet, L.A. Weekly: Deception offers a fantasy even big money can't buy -- Wall Street as a cross between a James Bond adventure and a Victoria's Secret spread. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's only one good con game going on here. And it's the studio's sneaky plot to nimbly pick $11 from your pocket. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Every actor has a few titles on his resume that he'd love to forget. So should you ever have the opportunity to meet Deception stars Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor, we highly recommend you pretend this movie was never made. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Is there anything more boring than watching $20 million being electronically trans ferred to an offshore bank account? Maybe it's someone repeatedly barking 'You have no idea what I'm capable of!' into a cellphone. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Never less than watchable. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Simultanously silly and sleep-inducing. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's not a twist in this flimsy and moth-eaten plot that isn't both contrived and transparent and not a character who hasn't been hopelessly manipulated by the needs of the narrative. Read more

Jim Emerson, Chicago Sun-Times: What can compare with the white-knuckle suspense of uploading a file? Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: To his credit, Langenegger keeps things relatively simple instead of resorting to lots of fast cutting and fancy camera angles. To his detriment, the picture he has made barely moves at all. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: An overwrought and ultimately silly thriller. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The plot comes together in Madrid in a whirl of multimillion-dollar swindles and gunplay, and for all its contrived surprises, it has the feel of a well-designed mousetrap snapping shut. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: When you advertise an erotic thriller and then give us a comedy, that's deception in any language. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: An accountant's sex fantasy, Deception is the story of an audit gone deliciously bad. Read more

Philip Marchand, Toronto Star: The inevitable absurdities and coincidences of the plot are easy enough to accept along the way, except perhaps for the sex club, which is just a little too absurd to function as a plot device. Read more

Drew Toal, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Despite a cast that includes double-crossers Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams caught in the middle, the film is a yawn. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: A thin thriller, burdened by clunky dialogue and prone to telegraphing its twists. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Deception is another example of when genre-fication (the forcing of otherwise intriguing stories into the straitjackets of horror, thriller or other genres) reduces our entertainment to head-shaking banality. Read more