Movie review: 'Deception' a deceptively entertaining tale

Meek, mousy Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) spends most evenings toiling over corporate financial records in a sterile Manhattan office tower, with maybe an envious glance at a janitor and cleaning woman sneaking into the restroom for a fling.

The independent auditor moves rootlessly from one job to the next, until confident corporate lawyer Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) invites him to share a late-night joint in the boardroom. Wyatt, a suave lady's man with a killer smile, takes a friendly interest in the number cruncher, inviting him on jaunts to strip clubs and lunches in Central Park.

When the men accidentally switch cell phones as Wyatt leaves the country, Jonathan answers a call originating from a sex club for executive men and women who want ecstasy without intimacy. (Shades of the Emperors Club and Client 9!) Stepping into Wyatt's life, Jonathan enters a world of anonymous intercourse. When the one woman to whom he feels an emotional bond vanishes from their hotel room, apparently kidnapped, Jonathan tumbles into a dangerous game of corporate intrigue.

Mark Bomback's convoluted script has plenty of hairpin twists, role reversals and double crosses, but it isn't weighted down with an overabundance of plausibility. This is the sort of escapist suspense tale where high-security apartments can be entered without tripping an alarm and a person who has probably never held a gun before can fire it with deadly accuracy.

The story is held together by a veneer of slick photography (it's all cold, shining surfaces) and a better-than-average musical score. The dialogue is no more than functional, but there's enough audiovisual glitz to compensate.

Jackman, one of the film's producers, makes a meal of the role of Wyatt, a smooth operator who is both less and more than meets the eye. He shines in scenes where his smile holds a trace of jeering snarl. McGregor is a convincing milksop, with flinchy body language and eyes that slide away from challenging contact, yet with a core of strength that emerges in a crisis. Michelle Williams plays his romantic interest, an alluring mystery woman who is not as vulnerable as she seems.

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.

Colin Covert • 612-673-7186