Paycheck Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)January 6th, 2004
Paycheck
Matinee
My long term readers know I am no fan of Ben Affleck; when he is at his least unwatchable, he is confused, at a loss, off his guard, as compared to cocky, swaggering, and near any real-life girlfriends. Thankfully for Paycheck, Affleck is completely acceptable in this role of a man whose memory has been wiped but had foreknowledge of his fate and engineered his salvation. Yes, another "seeing the future is really not worth it" morality tale from the drug-addled mind of Philip K. Dick. This film is no Minority Report, but then again, it would be unfair to demand that Dean Georgaris also be Scott Frank and for John Woo to be Stephen Spielberg.
What Woo does best, Woo does here (unintentionally parodying himself with two - yes two - Mexican standoffs straight out of The Killer) and he does a lot of it, and well; but what Woo does not do as well is the kind of intricate plotting and specific set pieces to build the psychological aspect of the story. If you saw Memento, you will know what I mean. Despite having unbelievable resources, it still seems a little too easy. That would be the plot holes through which Affleck is effecting his escape.
Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun watching this movie. It's got great near-future production design (one of my favorite periods), it's got good pacing, the dialogue didn't insult me (until they went into the mechanics of memory erasure and dear heavens!) and I actually cared about the characters, even Affleck. I was interested in the mystery and I wanted to know how it ended. As action movies go, all my expectations were met. Action movies based on Philip K Dick stories (Blade Runner, Total Recall, and of course Minority Report) demand a little more attention behind the camera to make sure they can be enjoyed on the expanded consciousness "what if" level they demand as well as the bang bang ain't it cool level they inspire. Paycheck generally succeeds.
Paul Giamatti, underused as ever, collects his paycheck and juggles facial hair to demonstrate the passage of time. I would have seen it for him anyway, but compared to the (relatively) haggard and uninteresting (in this role) Uma Thurman, Giamatti is as always a breath of fresh acting in an otherwise action-centric movie. Aaron Eckhart has his golden moments stolen by minion Colm Feore, and I had some confusion as to who worked for whom at times, but they are effective in their roles and add depth where Georgaris forgot to provide some. It's fun, it won't change your life, though it could have, if it had just had a little more detail to the smarty pants aspects of the tale. Check it out.
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These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
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