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Apr. 25th, 2008 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_t_220So Kat and I went to see Deception this afternoon.
I will be honest. It's not *great* great. I'm not a fan of the genre so I will admit my main interest was indeed Mister Huu, BUT, that said, it also doesn't deserve some of the stick it's getting either. It's not a work of cinematic genius due to the fact that you can kind of see where the plot's going, and I'll admit I'd had the ending spoilered by on-set photos, but regardless it was a fairly standard thriller storyline. I have seen it done better but I've also seen it done a lot, LOT worse. Some of the cinematography was quite lovely but incredibly reminiscent of what I would call 'The Independant Cinema Look'.
Have you ever noticed how indie movies, especially Canadian and Australian ones are *really* fond of the image of the lone character sort of floating in an isolated fashion through the rest of the world, usually shot from a fair distance away just to emphasize the lone-ness? Canadian movies seemed to do this a great deal through the late 80s, early 90s. It's like trying to cram in landscape for 'texture' but it's really more just watching your characters from a long way away. It's a slightly detatched feel that's become sort of weirdly familiar as a signature of the small movie. There's a fair amount of that going on. It reminded me a little of the cinematography in Jindabyne actually. I half expected some sort of native musical instrument to start twanging out a little lament.
That aside, it was otherwise engaging enough and one or two moments did have me grinning in a strange sort of glee, but that may just have been my appreciation for Hugh playing the bad guy. He does it rather well and indeed seems appropriately slimy in all the right moments. (If you've seen the trailer, by the way? This is not a spoiler.)
Over-all, we paid our £5.50 and were duly entertained for an hour and forty-seven minutes and that's really all you can ask for on a grey Friday in April. So in non-spoilery detail I'll say this is how my general over-all reaction ran:
Opening music sounds a bit porno. Ewan. HUGH! Oooh, shirtless. No Hugh, slightly slow, fractionally bored, lot of Ewanporn. Oooh, small squee of evil glee. Stuff happens. Bigger squee of nefarious delight! Plot stuff. That's creepy but... strangely hot. This ending is so not a surprise to me. The End.
So... go see it if you have nothing better to do. Or if you DO have something better to do, rent it later when you don't have anything better to do. I think I'll probably list it as one of my guiltier Hugh-pleasures and fast-forward to the creepy strangely hot bit a lot.
There's more detailed waffling here.
I'd also like to add, Hugh really does seem *HUGE* while he's pawing all over Michelle Williams. Hands like HAMS. On that note though, any time he feels like being creepy and pawing all over my bosoms he is totally welcome to try.
Kinda' woe that there was no nakey Hughsex in there but a pleasing suggestion of something kinda' rough and kinda' nasty which you're probably not supposed to find a bit weirdly hot but yet strangely... kind of is.
Can I say also that Hugh does quite a good impression of a corpse? I strangely enjoyed him getting shot. (I have weird!wrong kinks along side my regular kinks, oh yes I do.) And can I admit how much I *LAUGHED* when Johnathan gets the police fax with Wyatt's real identity and photos on? Seriously, it was the Gorman and Agius photos! Most unlikely mugshots evar!
I'd also like to know why some reviews have labled the ending hodgepodge and nonsensical? It made total sense to me. It was almost blindingly obvious in fact. If you can believe Wyatt can get a fake passport listing him as Johnathan then Johnathan can get a fake passport listing him as Wyatt. OK, I don't know how he got it so *fast* but that's a problem for another day. Within its own world it makes sense.
Also, people saying there's some great twists in there? There really aren't. You can see them all coming from a mile away unless you've been living under a barn in a small African state with no internet access for the last year. Kat guessed pretty much every plot point before it happened and she's not had time to follow it much beyond what I've posted here so... 'smart and full of twists'? No. But it does manage to be entertaining enough regardless.
I did notice however that all the people Wyatt interacts with that he's supposed to know do give quite overt 'WTF?' expressions in response to him. That was SO not the most subtle of clues there. Perhaps if they hadn't thrown into the trailer the fact that WYATT DOESN'T WORK THERE it wouldn't have been as noticeable. Stoopid trailer spoilers.
Criticisms aside, I did enjoy my smatterings of evil glee courtesy of utterly psycho Hugh. LOVE that headtilt after Johnathan's apartment explodes. Generally love him being an utter bastard. However, the concept of things happening 'two weeks ago because the pipe wasn't leaking' is one that has managed to linger long after the end of the movie and has been repeatedly applied to pretty much everything since we got home. It has, I fear, the potential to be a fairly long-standing in-joke no one else is ever going to understand.
Therefore to give it some context, it's a better movie than Scoop, but I think I enjoy Scoop more just because it knows how to put its tongue firmly in its cheek and appreciates that it's ludicrous. This wasn't ludicrous so much as not as clever as it wanted to be.
However I'd rather watch Deception than Any episode of Snowy River, whether it's got Hugh in it or not.
Watchable therefore, but not brilliant. More stylishly crafted than the 'erotic thrillers' of the 90s but really not so much an erotic thriller as a thriller with a bunch of sex in, which is not quite the same thing. I'll give it a reasonable 6.5/10
And I'm pobably going to go see it again at some point with C and her mother unless I hideously overspend tomorrow. I'll let you know if it manages to live with repeat watchings.
I will be honest. It's not *great* great. I'm not a fan of the genre so I will admit my main interest was indeed Mister Huu, BUT, that said, it also doesn't deserve some of the stick it's getting either. It's not a work of cinematic genius due to the fact that you can kind of see where the plot's going, and I'll admit I'd had the ending spoilered by on-set photos, but regardless it was a fairly standard thriller storyline. I have seen it done better but I've also seen it done a lot, LOT worse. Some of the cinematography was quite lovely but incredibly reminiscent of what I would call 'The Independant Cinema Look'.
Have you ever noticed how indie movies, especially Canadian and Australian ones are *really* fond of the image of the lone character sort of floating in an isolated fashion through the rest of the world, usually shot from a fair distance away just to emphasize the lone-ness? Canadian movies seemed to do this a great deal through the late 80s, early 90s. It's like trying to cram in landscape for 'texture' but it's really more just watching your characters from a long way away. It's a slightly detatched feel that's become sort of weirdly familiar as a signature of the small movie. There's a fair amount of that going on. It reminded me a little of the cinematography in Jindabyne actually. I half expected some sort of native musical instrument to start twanging out a little lament.
That aside, it was otherwise engaging enough and one or two moments did have me grinning in a strange sort of glee, but that may just have been my appreciation for Hugh playing the bad guy. He does it rather well and indeed seems appropriately slimy in all the right moments. (If you've seen the trailer, by the way? This is not a spoiler.)
Over-all, we paid our £5.50 and were duly entertained for an hour and forty-seven minutes and that's really all you can ask for on a grey Friday in April. So in non-spoilery detail I'll say this is how my general over-all reaction ran:
Opening music sounds a bit porno. Ewan. HUGH! Oooh, shirtless. No Hugh, slightly slow, fractionally bored, lot of Ewanporn. Oooh, small squee of evil glee. Stuff happens. Bigger squee of nefarious delight! Plot stuff. That's creepy but... strangely hot. This ending is so not a surprise to me. The End.
So... go see it if you have nothing better to do. Or if you DO have something better to do, rent it later when you don't have anything better to do. I think I'll probably list it as one of my guiltier Hugh-pleasures and fast-forward to the creepy strangely hot bit a lot.
There's more detailed waffling here.
I'd also like to add, Hugh really does seem *HUGE* while he's pawing all over Michelle Williams. Hands like HAMS. On that note though, any time he feels like being creepy and pawing all over my bosoms he is totally welcome to try.
Kinda' woe that there was no nakey Hughsex in there but a pleasing suggestion of something kinda' rough and kinda' nasty which you're probably not supposed to find a bit weirdly hot but yet strangely... kind of is.
Can I say also that Hugh does quite a good impression of a corpse? I strangely enjoyed him getting shot. (I have weird!wrong kinks along side my regular kinks, oh yes I do.) And can I admit how much I *LAUGHED* when Johnathan gets the police fax with Wyatt's real identity and photos on? Seriously, it was the Gorman and Agius photos! Most unlikely mugshots evar!
I'd also like to know why some reviews have labled the ending hodgepodge and nonsensical? It made total sense to me. It was almost blindingly obvious in fact. If you can believe Wyatt can get a fake passport listing him as Johnathan then Johnathan can get a fake passport listing him as Wyatt. OK, I don't know how he got it so *fast* but that's a problem for another day. Within its own world it makes sense.
Also, people saying there's some great twists in there? There really aren't. You can see them all coming from a mile away unless you've been living under a barn in a small African state with no internet access for the last year. Kat guessed pretty much every plot point before it happened and she's not had time to follow it much beyond what I've posted here so... 'smart and full of twists'? No. But it does manage to be entertaining enough regardless.
I did notice however that all the people Wyatt interacts with that he's supposed to know do give quite overt 'WTF?' expressions in response to him. That was SO not the most subtle of clues there. Perhaps if they hadn't thrown into the trailer the fact that WYATT DOESN'T WORK THERE it wouldn't have been as noticeable. Stoopid trailer spoilers.
Criticisms aside, I did enjoy my smatterings of evil glee courtesy of utterly psycho Hugh. LOVE that headtilt after Johnathan's apartment explodes. Generally love him being an utter bastard. However, the concept of things happening 'two weeks ago because the pipe wasn't leaking' is one that has managed to linger long after the end of the movie and has been repeatedly applied to pretty much everything since we got home. It has, I fear, the potential to be a fairly long-standing in-joke no one else is ever going to understand.
Therefore to give it some context, it's a better movie than Scoop, but I think I enjoy Scoop more just because it knows how to put its tongue firmly in its cheek and appreciates that it's ludicrous. This wasn't ludicrous so much as not as clever as it wanted to be.
However I'd rather watch Deception than Any episode of Snowy River, whether it's got Hugh in it or not.
Watchable therefore, but not brilliant. More stylishly crafted than the 'erotic thrillers' of the 90s but really not so much an erotic thriller as a thriller with a bunch of sex in, which is not quite the same thing. I'll give it a reasonable 6.5/10
And I'm pobably going to go see it again at some point with C and her mother unless I hideously overspend tomorrow. I'll let you know if it manages to live with repeat watchings.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 08:22 pm (UTC)HA!! I always laugh when you see Hugh with an ID badge slung over his neck (i.e., 2020 Summit) and it's the Gorman Playbill picture. That's hilarious that they would use it as a mugshot in a movie. Too funny.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 08:23 pm (UTC)I really think they should have shown more of that, for the plot and all...
Can I say also that Hugh does quite a good impression of a corpse? I strangely enjoyed him getting shot.
Much better than in The Prestige.
Kinda' woe that there was no nakey Hughsex in there but a pleasing suggestion of something kinda' rough and kinda' nasty which you're probably not supposed to find a bit weirdly hot but yet strangely... kind of is.
I really think they should have shown more of that, for the plot and all...
Can I say also that Hugh does quite a good impression of a corpse? I strangely enjoyed him getting shot.
Much better than in The Prestige.
.And can I admit how much I *LAUGHED* when Johnathan gets the police fax with Wyatt's real identity and photos on? Seriously, it was the Gorman and Agius photos! Most unlikely mugshots evar!
You know only a slight few will pick up on that. I thought, hmmm, that looks familair.....
I did notice however that all the people Wyatt interacts with that he's supposed to know do give quite overt 'WTF?' expressions in response to him. That was SO not the most subtle of clues there. Perhaps if they hadn't thrown into the trailer the fact that WYATT DOESN'T WORK THERE it wouldn't have been as noticeable.
I really didn't notice. I guess I'll have to pay more attention next time. Yes, I said next time. One viewing is illegal, except when it came to VH.
I agree, good but not brillant. It was certainly watchable and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 08:33 pm (UTC)Much better than in The Prestige.
Well, you know, they actually included blood with it, unlike in The Prestige.
You know only a slight few will pick up on that. I thought, hmmm, that looks familair....
Least likely mugshots ever.
Yes, this is the mugshot they took when People Magazine voted me into their sexiest convict list...
I really didn't notice. I guess I'll have to pay more attention next time
When Wyatt asks Johnathan to join them at tennis he says 'hey, wait' to a guy that's passing and the guy gives him a totally weirded out WTF? look. Similarly the old man in the lobby of Wyatt's apartment building that he greets in German looks at him like he's lost his mind.
One viewing is illegal, except when it came to VH.
I'm not going to tell you how many times I saw that, then... :p
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 09:40 pm (UTC)Since you pointed it out, yeah it was bit of the WTF look but I didn't really notice it at the time. I just the old man didn't understand him or something.
I think my brain got lost though when Maggie Q was talking about him saying you know when it's so good you'd rather die than stop.....
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 09:49 pm (UTC)They really needed to illustrate her point.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-26 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 11:03 pm (UTC)The weirdly hot bit - oh yes baby, that weirdly and wrongly did it for me. But it was so frustrating that it cut off when it did. Although I knew it would, but that didn't make it any easier.
I think I'd remained subbornly upbeat about this film so it disappointed a little. The middle section was so dull (not as bad VH, which bored the hell out of me though). And the score was good *is desperately searching for reasons to back and see it again* Oh what the hell, I'll go back and see it just for the locker room scene and the so-wrong-it-was-right creepy Hugh with his massive paws.
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Date: 2008-04-26 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-26 07:45 am (UTC)That happens to me all the time, though not just Hugh films. At the local fleapit indie pretty much no one ever shows up until the 8pm showings so I've seen massive blockbusters on opening day in an empty theatre before now.
The weirdly hot bit - oh yes baby, that weirdly and wrongly did it for me. But it was so frustrating that it cut off when it did. Although I knew it would, but that didn't make it any easier.
Really massive paws. He seemed gigantic compared to her.
That scene should have been so much longer...
The middle section was so dull
There was quite a slow bit in there. It took a while for Ewan to meet his girl and get her abducted, after that it seemed to pick up again, it was just that bit between the phone switch and the kidnapping that kind of went on forever.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-26 02:11 am (UTC)Oh my frickin god yes. Is Michelle Williams a hobbit? I mean, Hugh has big hands but that scene made him look like a freak.
Uh, I'm going to go with "oh my frickin god yes" on that one too.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-26 07:47 am (UTC)He realy did look gigantic. But Ewan looked normal sized compared to both of them. Perhaps they made her stand on a box in Ewan's scenes?