| A buttoned-down Ewan McGregor unwittingly stumbles upon a world of anonymous sex in this erotic thriller that chugs along at a sluggish pace By Manohla Dargis NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK A would-be erotic thriller with no heat and zero chills, Deception has the kind of glassy, glossy sheen and risible story that mean to suggest Basic Instinct but instead invoke lesser laughers like Jade and Sliver. A miscast Ewan McGregor plays a mouse who falls in with a charismatic (or so the screenplay insists) stranger played by the miscast Hugh Jackman. One improbable thing leads to another, and suddenly the mouse is roaring, having been inducted into a sex club in which beautiful women in French lingerie crawl around on all fours as if auditioning for a remake of 9 1/2 Weeks. At one point a bony Michelle Williams shows up in a fabulous haircut and towering heels that would fell a lesser woman. Complications ensue. Directed by the first-timer Marcel Langenegger, whose background in advertising is belied by this movie’s sluggish pace, Deception was written by Mark Bomback, who did far better coming up with polysyllabic grunts and groans for Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard. The characters in Deception are little more than avatars, generic types (good guy, bad man, fatal blonde), that Langenegger moves from one busy setup to the next. The venerable cinematographer Dante Spinotti, whose credits include The Insider, here works with a dark, almost monochromatic palette and bathes the exteriors in an attractive gun-metal blue, but neither his work nor that of the expert production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein (The Ice Harvest, A Simple Plan) is enough to save the movie from itself. Cougar fans take note: Charlotte Rampling plays a sex club denizen, sometimes seminude. | |
| FILM NOTES DECEPTION DIRECTED BY: Marcel Langenegger STARRING: Hugh Jackman (Wyatt Bose), Ewan McGregor (Jonathan McQuarry), Michelle Williams (S), Lisa Gay Hamilton (Detective Russo), Maggie Q (Tina), Natasha Henstridge (Wall Street Analyst), Lynn Cohen (Woman), Danny Burstein (Clute Controller), Malcolm Goodwin (Cabbie), Dante Spinotti (Herr Kleiner/Moretti), Bill Camp (Clancey Controller), Lisa Kron (Receptionist), Margaret Colin (Ms. Pomerantz), Charlotte Rampling (Wall Street Belle) RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY
| |
When a lawyer introduces his accountant friend to a sex club, the fun doesn’t last long as a heist and a disappearance put both in the spotlight. PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX
| PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX
|
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX
| |
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS