Ewan McGregor never convinces as a meek accountant (who actually admits to sleeping with only four women in his entire life!) whose cell-phone is switched with that of a swinging New York City lawyer (Hugh Jackman, also none-too-convincing with a hack American accent). The accountant allows himself to be submerged in the high toned-yet-seamy lifestyle of the lawyer until he's set up to be the fall-guy in a crime. Continually disappointing, derivative, unimaginative thriller filmed in washed-out winter-blues and grays, crippled by an endlessly-protracted finale. With a seemingly large budget and talented actors in the cast (including Charlotte Rampling--still beautiful in her later years),blame for the picture's failure must fall on Mark Bomback's ridiculous screenplay, which could have been penned by any student just graduating film school. *1/2 from ****

Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is a shy and lonely auditor moving from one office to the next. Late one night, he is befriended by charismatic Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). They get their phones switched and Jonathan gets a call from a mysterious woman (Natasha Henstridge). He spends the night together with her. Next he meets an older woman (Charlotte Rampling) who explains the sex club rules. The next woman (Michelle Williams) is someone he has seen before and he's in love with her, believing her name starts with S. The next time they meet in a hotel. He's knocked out and S disappears. The blood stain is gone and he calls the police. Detective J. Russo (Lisa Gay Hamilton) has nothing to go on. He discovers that Wyatt is a fiction and he's blackmailed into stealing money from dirty accounts in the company. He gets a call from Tina (Maggie Q). She knows Wyatt as Jamie Getz who possibly killed investment banker Rudolph Holloway.

There is one moment when this movie goes from intriguing to improbable. McQuarry picks up the phone and Russo's card. I kept thinking that he should call the cops and I was actually impressed that the movie would do exactly that. Instead of calling Russo, he impersonates Russo to get information from the cops. It's mind-boggling. Wyatt's threats boil down to hurting S but for all McQuarry knows, she's part of his scheme. So he does something illegal and easily trackable to save a woman he barely knows. Michelle Williams is gorgeous but I can't buy that she's that intoxicating. Nobody is Helen of Troy and nobody is that dumb. The plan is completely unlikely to work but the movie forces it to work. The final twist tries to salvage the movie by doubling down but it doesn't work. It's nice to see these actors but this is all about the plot points.

In Manhattan, the shy auditor Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) befriends the lawyer Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) in the office where he is working. While having lunch together, they accidentally swap their cell phones and Wyatt travels to London. Jonathan receives a phone call from a woman scheduling a meeting in a hotel, and sooner he finds that Wyatt is member of a sex club called The List where he has one night stand with successful businesswomen. Among the rules, the participants should stay anonymous to the partner. Jonathan joins The List and when he dates a woman that he had previously met in the subway whose name begins with the letter "S" (Michelle Williams),he falls in love for her. They schedule a next encounter in Chinatown, and S is kidnapped from their room in the hotel. Jonathan seeks the police, but without any information about S, he can not report a missing person. When Wyatt returns from London, Jonathan discovers that he is trapped in a dirty scheme of slush money.

When I saw the trailer of "Deception", I truly believed that it could be a great movie. However, the movie is a complete deception, with a predictable and unrealistic story full of clichés and stupid plot holes. For example, how could a man with the profile of Jonathan smoke pot with a stranger in the office where he is working? And later, while chasing Wyatt, why should he tell to a secretary that he had smoked marijuana with Wyatt in the meeting room? How could Wyatt so easily circulate in an office and in a fancy building in Manhattan without having problem with the security guards or the porter? Why should Jonathan leave twenty million dollars in the Spanish park after having his life destroyed? How easy is to make an American passport and travel with the name of a dead man? I could list many other holes in the story, like the scene of the explosion of the apartment. Further, the predictable twist with the appearance of Jonathan is simply terrible and the corny and awful conclusion shows that love is beautiful. In the end, the only thing that works perfectly in this story is its tile that summarizes my feeling for the whole movie. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Lista" ("The List")