The week prior to the first weekend in May is a tough slot for studio’s to fill. What to fill it with? Whatever they release will more than likely come and go, make a few dollars. It’s a dumping ground. They know you are eagerly awaiting that first summer blockbuster and you are too eagerly waiting for the summer films to kick, so you have this opening slot at the end of April and studio’s decide to release something, to make at least a buck or two. It’s something for the bored crowd to go out and see and the studios usually release a film with little to no fan fare. In case of this year, it’s “Deception”.

Now on paper, it’s got a stellar cast: Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams, in a thriller, filled with subplots and sex. But in execution is a bland, thin, and predictable potboiler.

Jonathan McQuarry is a timid, bookish account, whose job is thankless to everyone else but him. He’s a sort of a freelance accountant going from law firm to law firm, auditing them. People get uneasy when he comes in; hoping he doesn’t stumble upon their secret accounts filled with millions, except for Wyatt Bose, a hot-shot lawyer who befriends him. Soon after Bose introduces McQuarry to a secret club, in which all you have to do is call a number and ask, “Are you free tonight?” You meet at a hotel, don’t ask for names or engage in conversation and have random sex. After his first taste, McQuarry gets addicted to this lifestyle and soon finds him self doing it nightly. His world is sent for a loop as he break’s the rules and falls for a young blonde only known as “S (Williams)”. Right when he thought life couldn’t get any better, she disappears and unravels him into blackmail.

I knew there was not much hope for the film, especially when I just saw the trailer for the first time a week ago, but with that cast and an interesting idea, although not entirely new, it sounded like a decent time. For the opening half an hour it was. Jackman is always likable and his charisma is on full display again here as he befriends McQuarry, in which it’s interesting to see McGregor as the timid, shy type. They’re a natural pairing; while Bose is suppose to be open and help shake up McQuarry’s boring, orderly life, the pairing of Wolverine and Obi-Wan appears natural. You immediately like them and by that you’re roped into their story.

The film is slick and glossy, typical of a mainstream Hollywood drama, even if it’s Marcel Langenegger’s directorial debut, previously a commercial’s man. So the style isn’t that far off from what he is used to nor is the fast-cut editing. Although some shots are stereotypical, like when the go into a sex club, random, close cuts and sexy strippers are a convention and is the first notification that we’re being deceived too.

The film loses its way mostly due to the thin plot. We are not truly let into this private sex list and nor do we ever learn to understand it. It’s a pivotal element that we understand it, outside of the participant’s rules. You can only guess it is an exclusive club to be apart of, as there are hints that these people are part of New York’s rich and wealthy. But instead of embracing this element, it drops out of sight once McQuarry is tricked into Bose’s game (not a spoiler, it is in the trailer that this happens). From there we get a pretty conventional climax that is quite predictable to foresee. Once all of the twists have been giving and the credits roll, is when we realized that all might have been deceived from this movie: us, the audience who paid for the tickets, the stars (I didn’t mention this, but Michelle Williams does a good job with nothing to do), and the theaters who play it.

“Deception” is too conventional to recommend, to predictable to entertain, and to bland that does a disservice to the thriller genre. With an almost interesting premise and a good cast, it could’ve been a minor thrill ride, but the whole idea has been done a million times before, but 20th Century Fox doesn’t care. It’s the final weekend prior to the Summer Blockbusters and if it makes a buck, good, if not, oh well.