Deception (2008)

Plot of Deception: Johathan McQuarry is an auditor of financial organisations in New York. He is a bit nerdy and maybe a bit lonely, but in one organisation he meets Wyatt Bose, and attorney with whom he gets on well, and when they accidentally switch phones he receives a call from a woman, apparently arranging for sex. He meets her and they get to it, and it seems that he has become part of a secret organisation where couples get together just for sex.  With Wyatt’s approval he indulges, until he meets ‘S’ with whom he gets on well, and who he start to date, but before they can consummate their relationship she is kidnapped, and it turns out that Wyatt is a villain who had kidnapped her, and will only give her back if Jonathan carries out an illegal transfer of a fortune while engaged in auditing  bank. But Jonathan can see that there are problems even though he must transfer the money. What to do?

Content: There is quite a bit of fairly explicit sex, featuring well honed young women, some smoking of joints and drinking of alcohol. Johathan spends a lot of time hunched over computer screens, Wyatt is seen to be extrovert and  important, apparently consorting with important people. As well as having sex, Jonathan develops a relationship with S (no-one provides their real names), and also becomes involved with the NYPD who have him look at the body of a woman who has been strangled, possibly using a string of Jonathan’s tennis racket. He claims not to know her. Wyatt turns out not to exist. The whole affair moves to Madrid where things play out.

A View: The critics did not like this outing and it did not make any money so it seems. I was a bit surprised by some aspects of the plot, difficult to write about it without revealing the climax but, like the critics, I did find the direction of travel pretty obvious. Did that matter? Well, it comes as a bit of a relief for me to watch a film presented in a conventional manner, and to see people apparently enjoying their sexual experiences rather than finding the whole business visibly painful. So if you quite like lightweight thriller this could be for you. Almost nothing to offend.

Fun Fact: They actually did film in Madrid, putting the bank which received the stolen money in the same street as the Spanish National Bank.