From the undeceptively clear title you can guess that there’s a deceiver afoot in this competent thriller scripted by Mark Bomback (“Live Free or Die Hard”). First-time director Marcel Langenegger packages a workable genre piece set in late-night Manhattan. The corporate elite on “The List” book fuck appointments with one another in hip hotels. Auditor Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor from “Cassandra’s Dream” and a couple “Star Wars” episodes)—who itemizes his sex partner at four, to date—suffers from a name that practically caws for a predator to alight. That would be Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman, a two-time “X-Man” with a third on the way), who befriends the bespeckled Jonathan, lends him a $4,000 coat, switches cell phones in a fake slip-up, and then lets Jonathan take Bose’s calls from members on “The List” while Bose is away in London on business. Members on the no-names-allowed “List” only ask, “Are you free tonight?” and then make a rendezvous if you are. Jonathan breaks the rules and converses with all-I-know-is-the-initial-on-your-key-ring “S” (Michelle Williams from “Brokeback Mountain.”) During a tryst in a Chinatown hotel, he comes back from the ice machine down the hall, and she is gone. Jonathan has a lot of figuring to do after that. There’s $20 million to transfer. A hostage buy-out deal. Leaky pipes. A gas leak. And then fond close-ups of laughing children in a plaza in Spain that hint at happy dividends ever after. 107m. Anamorphic 2.40 widescreen. (Bill Stamets)
Related Stories
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Uncanny Ally: A Review Of M3GAN "M3GAN" sells itself in its first handful of seconds in how it introduces the handiwork of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, "Get Out") and her present product, PurrPetual Petz from Funki.
Spawn Sacrifice: A Review Of The Creator "The Creator" is richly detailed, punchy, pulpy, punkish entertainment that still has highly serious subjects in mind, without growing didactic and with substantial heart.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
Fine Line: A Review Of Shortcomings It's a season for the comeuppance of a curmudgeon in Randall Park's smart, biting "Shortcomings," adapted by Adrian Tomine from his graphic novel of the same name.
