Tepid Con Job Spoils Sexual Intrigue in ‘Deception’ With Ewan McGregor

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:01:00 -0600

CHICAGO – Despite its timid title, “Deception” has all the right ingredients for a decent tale of mystery: a strong premise, sound acting and the famous femme fatale. It even starts with a promising conviction: How does a background player in life deal with initiation into a secret society?

Michelle Williams (left) and Ewan McGregor in “Deception”.
Photo credit: IMDb

The real mystery is why this strong beginning led to a such weak and conventional conclusion.

Ewan McGregor portrays Jonathan McQuarry: a mousy accountant who specializes in corporate audit assignments. His life is long hours, ever-changing clients and little social reward.

While completing a routine audit at a law firm, he meets an attorney named Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). After bonding over tennis and a strip club, Bose lets McQuarry in on a secret: He belongs to “The List”.

The List is a sex club that allows anonymous coupling with no strings attached. It’s used by power brokers who presumably have no time for relationship entanglements.

Ewan McGregor (left) and Maggie Q in “Deception”.
Photo credit: IMDb

McQuarry is let in on The List when he accidentally switches phones with Bose and the encounters start ringing him up.

One such encounter – the enigmatic “S” (Michelle Williams) – gets coerced into further meetings by McQuarry despite the rules against fraternization between members on The List.

Their bonding leads to a closer relationship that triggers several strange occurrences involving kidnapping, blackmail and McQuarry’s knowledge of corporate accounts.

While this is a film about the con, great cons don’t telegraph themselves like this one.

Though three actors with great reputations work hard on their characters, the script gives them highly improbable circumstances on which to settle. While Hugh Jackman seems to be having fun with everything, he doesn’t seem to have the chops to tackle the less savory parts of his character.

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Though Michelle Williams gives her “S” persona an appropriate aura, her development afterward is confusing. The List is the coolest and most dangerous element of the film.

There is an amazing montage with McGregor trysting with various ladies including an older sexpot played by veteran Charlotte Rampling. There seemed to be more happening in the exchange between McGregor and Rampling than the rest of the main story’s complex con game.

That should have been the movie. Another problem was the love story that develops between “S” and McQuarry. Williams plays it like she they were feeding her pages as she went along.

There’s no overall sense that the two have the type of intense, abiding love that would allow for the risk factors to make this whole charade make sense. She is a woman of uncertainty – OK – but she carries that blank slate all the way. The web is simply too tangled in practicing this deception.

“Deception” opened on April 25, 2008.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

‘Balls of Fury’: Thank You; Try Again

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:31:00 -0600

CHICAGO – Thank you. Try again. When your sell is entirely dependent on being utterly hi-lar-ious, you’d better trigger unruly body spasms.

Otherwise, for instance, you’re left with a film like “Balls of Fury” because you only served up a subpar gag show.

Thomas Lennon in “Balls of Fury”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
“Balls of Fury,” which opened on Wednesday, is a well-intentioned attempt at hilarity through the admittedly original lens of the cool side of ping-pong. It’s funny, sure, but the critical question is: How funny?

One way to judge the side-splitting value of a feature-length film is by using the body test. Do your loins ache from laughing so frenetically or did you only crack a few grins and release a couple chuckles?

Maggie Q in “Balls of Fury”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
Unlike the riotous time I had at “Superbad,” “Balls of Fury” partially delivered but mostly disappointed. The film could have used a good deal of polishing, the extraction of some botched funnies and the appendage of many more.

The always brilliant Christopher Walken donning Asian drag, though, helped to make up for some of the film’s pitfalls. As an unexpected local touch, Robert Blackwell of Chicago-based Killerspin was at my screening and announced his involvement.

Christopher Walken in “Balls of Fury”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
Killerspin is the host of professional ping-pong tournaments. Blackwell was called on by the film as a promotional partner and plays an extra, he says, even though my relatively sharp eye didn’t notice.

“Balls of Fury” is currently sporting a 27 percent (out of 100) rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 81 accredited critics.

Dan Fogler in “Balls of Fury”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
While I never check the Tomatometer rating before formulating an opinion (hence why the figure is wrapping up this review), it’s understandable when you delve in thinking you’ll be falling off your rocker when instead you just jostle around every now and then.

While a “huge comedy with tiny balls” is great marketing, its truth is in its mediocrity.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com