Few Surprises in Deception

Deception is a twist-filled thriller, but critics say the cloak of deceit will be paper-thin to anybody familiar with the genre. Ewan McGregor stars as a dull accountant whose life gets spicier after an attorney, played by Hugh Jackman, introduces him to a secret sex club. Soon after, the thriller cliches roll out, and "it's genre time," writes Desson Thompson in the Washington Post.

"Each major story revelation is so flagrantly telegraphed that when the revelations arrive they're more like fax confirmation sheets of what already came through," Michael Phillips writes in the Chicago Tribune. Director Marcel Langenegger's "generic thriller with a generic title" is a good-looking film, Robert Butler writes in the Kansas City Star, but it will be a "long, slow case of déjà vu" for most. (More Ewan McGregor stories.)