"Deception" doesn't live up to its stars: Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor

Everyone in the overwrought thriller "Deception" seems to be breathing heavily as they move through the film's succession of dimly lit rooms; it's as if the entire cast just came from some kind of business-attire nighttime footrace. And its plot (from an original screenplay by Mark Bomback) seems to come from a pulp novel. Hugh Jackman, playing a pinstriped corporate lizard named Wyatt, befriends dweebish accountant Jonathan (Ewan McGregor). An accidental cellphone switcheroo has Jonathan taking Wyatt's calls, which lead to some late-night assignations with some very willing women. Soon Jonathan's hooked up with a lovely nameless blonde (Michelle Williams) — who, in the way of many mysterious nameless blondes in the movies, meets a dreadful fate. Maybe.

Marcel Langenegger, making his feature debut, directs the film with a lurid slowness, catching his actors in pore-magnifying close-ups and moody shadows. He's got a strong cast — including a sly cameo by Charlotte Rampling, who turns up with her wickedly knowing smile as one of Wyatt/Jonathan's booty calls — but their performances aren't anchored to anything; nothing about this movie draws you in. This is the kind of thriller in which much is made, in the beginning, of a leak in Jonathan's apartment that his super is slow to fix. You know that leak will turn out to play a key role in the mystery; so much so that you start judging its performance and wondering why it wasn't mentioned in the credits. (For the record, it's a fine and nicely mildewy leak.)

Meanwhile, Jonathan and Nameless Blonde meet cute — or as cute as two people who meet for anonymous sex can — and kiss in the rain, and Wyatt hisses, "You have no idea what I'm capable of!" and before you know it poor Jonathan's running around some cheap hotel in his underwear, wishing with all his might that he'd kept better track of his cellphone. Things quickly spiral out of control, with an explosion and a transfer of the action to Madrid and some dark alleys of plot into which the characters wander. Everyone, including Madrid, looks terrific, but "Deception" delivers on no other level, except perhaps as a guide to various New York hotel rooms. "I sit behind glass, and I watch people pass like fish," says Jonathan of his job; it's a fairly apt description of what it feels like to watch this movie.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com