Review: Paycheck

Ben Affleck plays a top engineer who carries out top-secret assignments for his rich businessman employer (Aaron Eckhart) and allows his memory to be wiped after each mission so that he can’t recall the details of it. Usually it’s only a short mission and thus only a few months’ worth of memories are lost, but Affleck’s latest assignment has him losing three years in exchange for big bucks at the end. Unfortunately, something has gone very, very awry. He now has no money in the bank ($92 million bucks, all gone!), in its place are several trivial and seemingly useless items in a safety deposit box. Oh yeah, and people (chiefly assassin/henchman Colm Feore) are trying to kill him, the FBI (Joe Morton and Michael C. Hall) are out to arrest him. Aside from best friend Paul Giamatti, the only person seemingly on his side is biologist Uma Thurman, whom Affleck was known to in the missing few years, and thus now has no idea who the hell she is.

 

This 2003 film didn’t set the world on fire on initial release, but with names like John Woo (“A Better Tomorrow”, “Hard-Boiled”, “Hard Target”), Phillip K. Dick (whose work has been adapted into films such as “Blade Runner”, “Total Recall”, “Minority Report”, and “The Adjustment Bureau”), Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Aaron Eckhart, and Michael C. Hall (TV’s “Dexter” himself), surely this must be a forgotten gem? Nope, it’s pretty average really and makes something rather complicated out of something actually pretty simple, if it were done right. Actually, even then you’d still have to contend with stupid human behaviour. Engineers are supposed to be smart, and yet when Ben Affleck sees Colm Feore (essentially playing a futuristic version of the Martin Landau role in “North by Northwest” to Affleck’s Cary Grant) about to wipe his brain with a giant Brontosaurus of a needle, he doesn’t do the smart thing by getting the fuck up and running the fuck away. Nope, he lets the always untrustworthy Feore have at it with the inner workings of his brain.

 

I also failed to understand the need for the ruse involving an impersonator of Uma Thurman when Affleck can’t remember her anyway. That made zero sense to me. The only reason it’s there is so it can fail when he suddenly does remember her, and that’s just too silly for words.

 

But still, as confusing and occasionally dumb as some of this is, the idea of a guy being arrested for something he allegedly did before his brain was wiped so he can’t remember it, is a clever conceit that could potentially lead to a thrilling paranoia-infused sci-fi actioner. As is, it comes off as a poor distant cousin to “Total Recall”. Also, as much as I think Ben Affleck is a rock-solid choice for the lead, he and Uma Thurman share absolutely zero chemistry. They’re actually similar in age, but she also looks older than she really is, and he has always looked younger than he really is, which makes their coupling even stranger.

 

What I really did like were some of the supporting performances, which give this film just about everything it has. Aaron Eckhart is a good choice as the slick businessman villain, whilst the trio of Paul Giamatti, Michael C. Hall, and especially a perfect Colm Feore steal all of their scenes, which is unfortunately too few. Still, they help keep this film watchable.

 

As for action and style, there’s precious little of that, and being that I can’t stand John Woo as a filmmaker, I can’t tell you how happy I was about that. No frigging arbitrary doves (not that I saw anyway) or idiots firing with two guns instead of one, etc. That said, the car/bike chase set-piece is just OK, and there is still a Mexican standoff scene.

 

The central premise isn’t that complicated (and there’s elements borrowed from other Dick stories throughout), it’s just been treated in a more confusing way than is really necessary, and the film is less fun than it could’ve and probably should’ve been. Whether this is due to the adaptation by writer Dean Georgaris (“Lara Croft- Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”) or Dick’s original material, I cannot say, but this one is watchable at best, and pretty forgettable.

 

Rating: C+