"Deceiver" wants to be cat-and-mouse but winds up sloth-and shrew as twins Josh and Jonas Pate deliver the most lumpen, rambling and tedious
Southern-prostitute-murder-involving-rich-person since the elephantine "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Fans of button-cute Renee Zellweger ('Jerry Maguire') should avoid this, as should fans
of intense Tim Roth ('Rob Roy') and also fans of good movies.
A girl's been turned into suitcase-packing material in Charleston and college cop Kennesaw (Michael Rooker, who has the pinched face of a
man suffering chronic constipation) and his blue-collar dim bulb partner Braxton (Chris Penn) are putting eccentric rich boy Wayland (Tim Roth) through a lie detector test. He's the only link the cops
have and they're under pressure to solve this gruesome murder. The beginning sequence is not bad, as the movie jumps right into the action and tension starts building as Roth starts pulling some
peculiar stunts. Unfortunately, this interrogation scene goes on forever and starts falling apart as the directors try to pack necessary information with titled flashbacks while keeping the 3
characters in one room (I think someone's been watching 'The Usual Suspects' and 'Pulp Fiction' and learning absolutely nothing).
Pate and Pate think that lots of dialogue in a morally
ambiguous crime movie equals Tarantino and very dark lighting equals film noir and confusing structure equals complexity. Wrong on all accounts. Pate and Pate also find it plausible that
Zellweger's hooker, Elizabeth, will have a tasteful bob with subtle highlights, minimal eye shadow and a private-school air. Uh, no, and this isn't explained by a one-line reference to her working for
an expensive escort agency, because if that's true, what the heck is she doing in the least authentic-looking peep show since Madonna's 'Open Your Heart' video AND standing around in a park waiting for her
"date"? Plot holes are forgivable, but not when the movie hinges on a supposedly intricate story where everything all ties together with an "Ooooh!" Well, everything does tie together, but
it's with an "Ehhhhhh." But I digress. As does this rambling movie.
OK, so Wayland is being interrogated and we learn, through clumsy flashbacks, that he lied in his past! that his
dad yelled at him! I dunno, I guess this is supposed to be pathos? Wayland, when he stops meandering into his childhood, possesses a sharp eye for psychological truth (someone's been
watching 'Silence of the Lambs'.....) and astonishes the two cops with his pronouncements. They need to nail him, but Wayland seems to know an awful lot about Kennesaw's marital difficulties and
Braxton's gambling problems. These unrevealing and rather dull side storylines involve Rosanna Arquette as Kennesaw's wife. Her edgy seductiveness is wasted and doesn't fit with the film's
overall flatness. She's required to do a stupid send-up of Liz Taylor's Maggie the Cat from "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" even down to the barely reworked 'I'm alive!' lines. Ellen Burstyn
delivers effective snap as a bookie known as 'The Mook' (ouch) given to dressing up like Auntie Mamie and delivering messages tied to shotgun shells. Tim Roth does a good job, believable as a quirky
absinthe addict and dynamic when he starts turning the tables. Absinthe: yeah, these kids think they're being terminally cool by digging up a long-forgotten drug (I think someone's been
watching Coppola's "Dracula'.....) Everyone's all connected to each other and everything gets told in flashback and everyone has something on everyone else and none of it is interesting.
The script must have read a lot better than it looks. There are some interesting ideas thrown in but it's too cluttered and lacking any suspense. Pate and Pate aim for shocking and
surprising plot twists but you can see them coming a mile away and besides, we've seen it all before and done with far more pizzazz. The last scene is meant to be a jolt and it's a yawn. What
happened to Elizabeth is not so nice but is stolen from 'The Innocent' (which, like 'Lambs,' also starred Anthony Hopkins -- is that the point?) Pate and Pate wrote and directed this mishmosh and it's
too bad that two twins don't add up to either one director or one writer. Direction is terribly loose, Tim Roth does his best in a physically demanding and potentially riveting role but he's all over the
place. Rooker reveals emotion by making an even uglier face than usual. Chris Penn delivers a good, solid performance as a not-too-swift guy who never knows what's going on. Renee
Zellweger has very little to do except posture in strange poses and deliver leaden lines like "Hope is what kills you." spoken, of course, as she sits on the street with Wayland, dressed in a sharp MTV
jacket, two little tears rolling down her bereft face. What is this, a Hallmark moment? Wayland is supposed to have a strong devotion to Elizabeth but we NEVER see it. Rooker's character is
supposed to be tortured by inadequacies but he just looks bored. All these characters are flat and lifeless. This film aims to be a twisty psychological thriller, but these types of plot twists
only work if the characters are developed enough so the surprise truth is unexpected (remember how disturbed you were when you found out Hannibal Lecter cared about Clarice? brrrr!). Weak
characters plus predictable surprises do not work. At all. Pate and Pate don't have the writing chops and try to make up for it with gimmicks. Bad idea.
Costumes are mediocre,
especially Zellweger's prom-girl shoes in her very silly peep-show scene. Pate & Pate aim for the profound and come up with pitiful (Wayland and Elizabeth tell each other what they wanted as kids,
Elizabeth fades to black as the light goes out). Photography is irritating, extremely dark but not for any particular reason and with little dramatic effect. Very mundane, pedestrian shots, dull
as dishwater. Camera work is annoying, especially the side-tilted shots at the end. (I think someone's been watching the "Batman" TV series......) Pate & Pate aren't comfortable
handling the camera, they are awkward when filming 2 characters walking down a street! I mean, really. Remember the slo-motion bravado of the characters in 'Reservoir Dogs' merely walking down a
street? In comparison, this is like watching Uncle Bill's video of a backyard party.
Pate & Pate did "The Grave" (which I haven't seen) winner of some award at Sundance. They dug
themselves a new one with this gimmicky, derivative, unoriginal clunker. A waste of time. Don't feel too bad for Zellweger, she got a boyfriend - maybe two? - out of this movie. She's
dating one of the Pates. They ARE awfully cute, in the manner of big Hansons. Good thing they're lookers 'cause this movie is a stinker. Might be worth renting for the laughable
epileptic fit scenes. People were busting out laughing at every one. |
