To me, this movie is perfection.

A different way of telling a story

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This movie has a pretty decent first half hour or so as Andie McDowell learns her pilot husband has been killed in Mexico and she needs to go there to identify the body. She then discovers that he had stashes of cash hidden at various banks around the world, and because of how well she knew him is able to transcribe his very elaborate decoding system (each bank falls under a different alias, and the way McDowell figures out which alias goes with which bank in which country actually got me pretty good while watching it) Unfortunately the movie pretty much falls apart once she gets to the last bank and is told that that account was closed out by the account holder himself. (which of course is impossible since she just identified his body earlier in the movie) No spoilers here, but McDowell then spends the rest of the movie trying to track down how that could be, eventually hooking up with Liam Neeson along the way. Neeson by the way has almost nothing to do in this movie...given his above the title billing, you'd think he'd have more to do, but no, his entire role is to look adoringly at McDowell, they have a nice little montage of walking around together and they climb a hill at one point, but Neeson is literally given nothing to do with the actual plot of the movie that we're watching. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, but you know he's known these days as a man of action, so to see him standing idly by while McDowell does all the sleuthing is kind of funny to me. The last half hour is a real let down btw. Again after that first half hour, I was thinking we're in for a semi decent suspense film (and we're getting a decent-ish travelogue here as well as McDowell is hopscotching from one country to another) but that last half hour loses so much steam that the ending came as a real disappointment to me.

A great idea for a movie, but a terrible script. Watched this movie on Netflix under the title "Deception" because I love the actors in this film, but again, a terrible script! Do you really expect me to believe that MacDowell's character would seriously attack an armed gunman who just shot her husband and then throw herself over her dead husband's body (who, by the way, just faked his death in order to dump her and her children with nothing to live on) when she's got three kids waiting for her to come home? She seemed to take all of that rather well when she saw him for the first time in Cairo and just wandered off with him, holding hands, on their way to his little palace... I don't think so...I would have beat him down for deserting me and my kids and for forcing my children to deal with the "death" of their father and at such a young age. Let's don't forget that he left them with nothing and didn't give a crap about them--at all! The characters just aren't believable or reliable because the dialog is plain awful and the characters are not well-developed at all. The story between Liam Neeson's character and Andie MacDowell's character could have been great but it was too choppy to relate to. I would not watch this movie again and I would not recommend it to anyone. Sorry Liam, you're one of my favorites but this movie was a waste of time.

I've seen plenty of terrible movies in my time, but this may be in the top 5 worst of all time.The first 50 minutes of the movie feel like you're running errands with Andie Macdowell, and boring errands at that. The remaining 40 minutes of the US version Deception are only a minor improvement. I kept waiting for the "thriller" aspect of the movie to kick in and it never did.There are several plot holes that never get filled, and the part that was cut from the US version would have most likely made the ending make at least some sense.I wouldn't recommend watching this if you're a die-hard Viggo or Liam fan, they don't exactly have much screen time. However, if you've always wanted to know what it was like to spend 90 minutes with Andie this might be the perfect movie for you.

I first saw this movie few years ago, and was very withdrawn to it. Even though I missed about 10 minutes in the beginning. Even though, a lot of reviewers seem to find the pace slow and the plot somewhat silly. I tend to find the movie less flashy and more realistic, with just about enough dramatization to appeal to regular movie goers. Generally speaking, multi-national productions have always generated such criticism from American audience. To mention a few 'Ready to Wear' (1994) and 'The truth about Charlie' (2002) are a perfect example. Both movies received a not so warm welcome. Both movies have a lot of side characters that fill up the screen and make you feel like they are talking to you directly. Not much shouting, or crying. Just talking… The story is a quest for the truth, by a woman (Bessie) who was led to believe that she has been recently widowed. As she puts the pieces together for what may have lead to her husband's demise, she finds that she may not even know the man she was so close to at all. In fact, her quest leads her to believe that he may not even be dead. The events also reveal courage, intellect & determination that the main character seemingly lacked. Without portraying 'Bessie' as a wonder woman type, or a cold hearted super determined shrew type, so typical of Hollywood productions, and so trite. Bessie is a woman who found her way in a time of hardship. She actually makes tough decisions, instead of breaking down and crying with a bottle and pain killers. Her sense of style is noticeably more sophisticated as the story progresses. In addition to the beautiful backgrounds of some historical foreign locations. Many of the side characters seem to be very representative of their locals. Whether in Mexico, Germany, Greece or Egypt. I find the bank teller in Mexico and the Egyptian woman in the foreigners registration office extremely corky and appealing. The screenplay is actually simple and more believable, than an over thought out dialogue, and without deep or snappy arguments. Such is the case among people from different cultures, meeting on the go. Little segments of conversation between 'Bessie' and several characters are actually personal and refreshing. My favorite by far is the conversation with the woman in the foreign registration office, an ostrich…Really? The ending is actually logical and not disappointing if you follow the plot, especially what some of the other cunning characters in the movie were planning. Personally, I was very withdrawn to the movie, from start to finish. Part of the attraction is due to the fact that I visited all these places, with the exception of Mexico. In fact, I have been to Cairo twice and spent about 3 months altogether in it. The City of Cairo is so over populated, you'll find poor people living in shacks in cemeteries and buildings rooftops. I did watch the movie more than once and still sit down through it. I do recommend it… The only problem with such movies, is that the end always seems too soon.