In Relation To Paycheck

Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is a special kind of engineer. He is hired by companies to work on highly sensitive (read: illegal) projects. After each project is finished, he is handed a big paycheck and his memory of everything that happened while he was on the project is promptly erased. When a man called Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart) offers him a job that will consume three years of his life, but leave him rich beyond his wildest dreams, Jennings agrees. Three years later, he finds he not only forfeited his paycheck, he's also being chased by everyone from the feds to Rethrick - and he has no idea why.

This movie is a really, really good idea. In the right hands it would have ranked up with other thrillers like Inception. Unfortunately, it was not in the right hands, so it's only so-so. Sometime between the original idea and the actual making of the movie, something went wrong.

First, Ben Affleck is not a very good actor. Jennings' generic character doesn't call for much acting, so that didn't bother me too much. But his girlfriend Rachel is played by Uma Thurman, who is not very good in this movie, either. Her character is pretty boring (I think perhaps the movie makers relied a little too much on her exotic looks), but she has some lines that should be funny and aren't.

This trend of character-less characters is pretty widespread; almost none of the characters are developed in any sense of the word. By far the best character is Shorty (Paul Giamatti), the kooky sidekick with the funny taste in clothes. Perhaps that's because Giamatti is the only good actor out of the bunch, with perhaps the exception of Eckhart. Unfortunately, Shorty isn't in nearly enough scenes. The evil characters are stereotypes, and the feds are just boring.

The characters are not the only part that doesn't work. Everything is extremely dramatized, as if the movie makers were aiming to make Paycheck the movie of the decade. Evidently they didn't realize that drama only works if the audience has more than money invested in the movie. Excitement cannot be drummed up with slow-motion action scenes or exhilirating music; audiences have to be emotionally invested in the characters at least a little.

My Rating: MT (language, violence, palm-reading, sexual content between hero and a side character)

Picture from coverbrowser.com