Cooperative

Lisa

2018

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PAYCHECK Review Combine Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?—novel made into Blade Runner, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"—short story made into Total Recall) source material, action director extraordinaire John Woo (Broken Arrow, Mission Impossible 2), the talents of Ben Affleck (Armageddon, Gigli) and Uma Thurman (Kill Bill: Volume 1, Gattaca), and one effectively has created a studio executive’s wet dream. While Paycheck may very well pay huge dividends in the box office, as a viewer there is very little of the aforementioned that pays off. Someone should have stopped the payment on this check. The premise of Paycheck involves a reverse engineer, Michael Jennings, who has a gift for deconstructing new technology, enhancing it, and making his clients (other technology firms) millions of dollars in the process. The caveat is that once his gig with a particular client is over, the memories of the work he has done are erased. Things get dicey when at the end of a particularly long gig, Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) receives not the generous paycheck he had been promised, but an envelope filled with seemingly meaningless items. Thus begins his journey to determine what happened and why everyone seems to be out to get him. An intriguing premise, but that’s about as far as this film ( live wallpapers hd for iphone from your favorite films) goes. Rather than delve into some of the interesting questions and ideas that invariably crop up when discussing memories and identity (which is a consistent theme among many of Philip K. Dick’s work), Paycheck merely uses the erasure of memories as a device and the film becomes little more than a standard, even less than average action film. While director John Woo does an excellent job of directing the plethora of frenetic, dizzying action sequences, he would have been well served to develop some characters such that viewers could become at least vaguely invested in their collective fates. Although, Woo should not be the only one held accountable for this. Dean Georgaris is the credited screenwriter in the film, and his only previous accomplishment was the flaccid Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. It’s unfortunate that Dick’s work failed to merit a more literary adaptation with compelling, three-dimensional characters. While Paycheck was well stocked with A-list actors, the film didn’t give them much to work with. To describe Affleck’s performance as bland, generic, and lifeless would be generous. There is really nothing to reverse engineer Michael Jennings. Some of this might be explained by the fact that he frequently has his memory wiped, but it would seem plausible that someone in his situation would be somewhat haunted by his mercenary lifestyle, not to mention deliver a dramatically nuanced performance as Guy Pierce did under somewhat similar circumstances in Memento. We see none of this. Jennings might as well be working at McDonald’s. Affleck playing a brilliant engineer was far from plausible. Perhaps equally implausible was the idea that Jennings was an exceptional hand-to-hand fighter able to take out an elite squadron of FBI agents. Uma Thurman plays biologist Rachel as the obligatory love interest for Michael Jennings. Unfortunately, Uma’s talents are wasted in this generic exercise. Additionally, the romance between these two seems manufactured at best. The entire nucleus of their attraction seems to be based on exchanged coy glances, smirks, and smug smiles. There seems to be nothing more to their relationship. It’s merely an excuse to periodically inject some manufactured dramatic tension. Perhaps the only element of this film that keeps one’s interest is how the various items in the aforementioned envelope play a pivotal role in Jennings unraveling the mystery and ensuring his survival. Each item is used in a creative and unique way that leads Jennings closer to the truth. That being said, virtually all of the items effectively act as a deus ex machina, absolving the writers of any creative responsibility. Unfortunately, there is little else to carry this film. While not a painful exercise, Paycheck is only marginally passable.

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