Deceiver (1998)

Strong and Moving!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I happened across this movie on TV today and it seemed kind of quirky so I decided to watch it. It reminded me a lot of The Usual Suspects, with a cagey suspect brought in for questioning in a murder and flashback scenes to illustrate the story. Tim Roth is outstanding, and Renee Zellwegger is pretty amazing in this drama. Has a very definite noir quality to it. I recommend it highly, even though I wasn't able to see the last 10 minutes so don't know what the ending was like. But that just gives me incentive to find it and watch it again!

First of all, this is not really a mystery thriller, it's more of an opportunity for the actors to chew the scenery. The plot makes no sense and the ending even less. It is pretentious in the extreme. Evidently the writers thought they were exploring the depths of the human soul and how people deceive themselves and others. Actually it's a mess. The three main characters, the suspect (Tim Roth) and the two cops are rotten to the core; in fact every character in this movie is rotten except for the prostitute/victim (Zellweger) who's an amiable dunce.A young woman has been murdered. The suspect is hooked to a lie detector and begins a game of psychological cat and mouse, the premise of which is so bogus it's impossible to sustain interest. All three, suspect and two cops, are lying and covering up unsavory parts of their lives. I got the feeling that the script was designed by postmodernists who don't believe there is any reality or any truth. This makes for terrible storytelling because if there's no reality as a reference point, there is absolutely no interest in the outcome. This is "Last Year at Marianbad" disguised as thriller.The ending doesn't make any sense because we are never told who actually committed the murder. We're given a brief scene, about five seconds, at the very end which suggests that the suspect has in fact faked his death and is revived, but that is too little to be sure of anything. How could that happen? Or was that just another flashback? Since everything seems to take place in an alternate surrealistic universe, where nothing makes sense anyway, then the only thought we are left with is: "Who cares?"

A very nice obscure film that was definitely a delight to find. Tim Roth plays an excellent role of James Wayland, a very wealthy temporal lobe epileptic who (like Van Gogh) has a taste for Absinthe. Lies and deceit being the main theme as suggested by the title, are apparent with the setting of the movie: an interrogation room. Wayland is to be questioned for the murder of a prostitute when his illness becomes apparent. A superb supporting cast delivers believable characters and a well paced plot for this psychological thriller. If you find this gem at a video store, stay away from the Seville DVD release as it is a horrible grainy transfer and you'd be better off with the VHS. I was lucky enough to find a newer special edition in widescreen. recommended to fans of the Absinthe subculture and fan's of sharp swerving plot twists. SHARP CURVES AHEAD. See also "From Hell".

There are a lot of twists and turns in this film and the majority of the plot and the characters behaviour are not credible at all. It begins well but suddenly the viewer is catapulted into total confusion. The viewer is not sure whether anything or anyone is real. ..................SPOILER COMING UP................................. Personally I think that Tim Roth's character is bad. He is a rich boy who knows it and doesn't like anyone telling him what to do/think and thinks he is above the law. He uses his money and intelligence to do what he wants and this gets him out of a very bad situation. He is attracted to and thrives on an 'otherness' to his world of responsibility - illegal liqour, vice, drugs, murder.