"That's a nice-a donut."
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Paycheck
Paycheck is a ho-hum action/sci-fi adapted from a short story from the great mind of Philip K. Dick. Ben Affleck stars as Michael Jennings, an engineering whiz who is often asked to work on top-secret, ground-breaking technological projects. In the beginning of the film, he finishes one job and is then required to undergo a magical procedure that erases his memory of the previous 2 months in which he was working. Since he is apparently the best there is at what he does, Jennings is asked to come to work for another company on an even bigger project - one which may take 2-3 years and would bring with it an 8 figure paycheck at the end. Of course we wouldn't have a movie if he didn't say yes; this time he must reside at the company and have no contact with the outside world. He must give up all his possessions and of course this job will also require a magical memory procedure. Flash forward 3 years. His work is done and Jennings is free to go. Soon he discovers that he inexplicably gave up his pay (about $92 million in stock) for 20 seemingly worthless and random items in an envelope. The rest of the film is an adventure yarn where Jennings must try to figure out what the heck he did over the last 3 years and why he gave up his payday.
The movie requires some great leaps of faith in its complex logic and unbelievable situations. The contrivances and unexplained plot holes are too numerous to mention. It's hard to take too serious a film (and being a sci-fi it certainly tries to be quite serious at times) where hundreds of bullets are fired - some nearly point blank - and no one gets hurt. Further, the resolution of the mystery seems like a letdown from the very intriguing buildup, and the climax isn't too exciting and is fairly predictable. The fine actor Paul Giamatti is generally wasted in a small supporting role as a friend of Jennings. Uma Thurman is okay as the love interest, but unmemorable and probably interchangeable in this role with any number of other actresses.
The movie does have a few good points though. I rather enjoyed the MacGyver-like way that Jennings must figure out what he should do with his 20 items - some of it is quite clever and are the highpoints of the film. There are a couple nice chase scenes too. Affleck most certainly doesn't look like an engineering whiz but he turns in a solid performance. Overall the story is mindless fun; once you start watching you'll want to stay on until the end.
Director John Woo does an admirable job, and even manages to fit in some of his usual bits including a white dove, but he should probably stick to more bang-up in-your-face style action. I really like Philip K. Dick adaptations (including Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report), but unfortunately Paycheck falls short of that pantheon. In fact, this felt like a much weaker version of Minority Report.
The Verdict: C.
Michael Bentley 10:23 AM
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