Deception
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: April 25, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
10
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Jackman and McGregor are a delight to watch. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklySam Sweet
This vision of Gotham is as fastidious as the cockpit of a BMW. But rather than sell luxury sedans, Deception offers a fantasy even big money can't buy -- Wall Street as a cross between a James Bond adventure and a Victoria’s Secret spread. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
With her arresting, off-kilter look of bruised desire, Michelle Williams ends up being the most interesting aspect of this somber corn. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The dynamic between Jackman and McGregor bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Aaron Eckhart and Matt Malloy from "In The Company Of Men": the cool, suave, experienced philosopher of excess and his weaker, more earnest pupil. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Deception is not the cool, noirish thriller it tries to be. Despite a cast that includes double-crossers Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams caught in the middle, the film is a yawn. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
An overwrought and ultimately silly thriller. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The film's first-time director, the TV-commercial-trained Marcel Langenegger, is out to emulate Hitchcock with dashes of "Vertigo," "Strangers on a Train" and more. But his homage is uninspired and disconnected, and his film is a bore. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Why Hugh Jackman was so excited by Mark Bomback's script to star and produce the film is as big a mystery as why such talents-on-a-roll as Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams joined the cast. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian Lowry
Strip out Deception's fleeting nudity and what's left is a throwback to "B" movie days -- a thin thriller, burdened by clunky dialogue and prone to telegraphing its twists. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
To his credit, Langenegger keeps things relatively simple instead of resorting to lots of fast cutting and fancy camera angles. To his detriment, the picture he has made barely moves at all. This no-style style isn't restraint; it's a kind of indifference to filmmaking. Read full review
40
EmpireKim Newman
Mildly titillating, but not very good. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
A lamentably slack and dishonest genre exercise. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
To succeed, Deception requires viewers to be both inattentive and stupid. There's not a twist in this flimsy and moth-eaten plot that isn't both contrived and transparent and not a character who hasn't been hopelessly manipulated by the needs of the narrative. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Deception is another example of when genre-fication (the forcing of otherwise intriguing stories into the straitjackets of horror, thriller or other genres) reduces our entertainment to head-shaking banality. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
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." Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Jackman and McGregor throw their best American accents behind the effort, but Michelle Williams seems fairly bored as the sex-club partner who wins McGregor's heart. I'm with her. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesMark Olsen
Deception would be laughably bad if it weren't so rotely inert. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Quickly devolves into a nonprescription alternative to Ambien. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Bomback's script is the worst thing a thriller can be - a flip-flopper, using quick character changes for plot twists. And Langenegger's direction rarely sustains a mood or tone, only a sleek veneer of luxury and knowingness. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The movie actually does feel like an Americanized work of Hong Kong moviemaking. But the desperate, derivative style, the nonsense plotting, and leggy, horny women are applied like too much MSG. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Everything is wrong pretty much from the start of this misbegotten adventure. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The real culprit is first-time director Marcel Langenegger, who seems to have studied for his debut by watching nothing but Cinemax. The score hints at ominous activities that never happen, a rain machine provides the only atmosphere and the actors have to suffer through the silliest sex scenes in recent memory. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
Whether you view it as intellectually dishonest or just plain sloppy, Deception is a movie that more than lives up to its title. Read full review
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