Really Surprised!

Load of rubbish!!

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

OK, what we have here is a totally predictable movie with so many plot crevices that it should be a lesser vote. Goldie and Heard do am excellent job. The little girl was adorable. Why bother adding an extra wife. Is she the director's girl friend. Or was it to add an extra five minutes to the movie. Useless.

The cover of this movie has a quote from some critic who says "If you like Hitchcock, you'll love "Deceived"". I say "if you like thrillers where you can tell who the bad guy is just by looking at the title and the cast, you'll love "Deceived"". John Heard gives a solid and creepy performance as the duplicitous husband, but there is no transformation - he's creepy right from the start. His "resurrection" after his supposed death must be one of the most unshocking "shocks" in thriller history. Goldie Hawn looks good (it's amazing that she was in her mid-40s when she made this!) but her performance lacks the Goldie Hawn spark; I understand that she chose this role to "play it straight", but she may have played it TOO straight. The movie is tiresome and predictable, but the New York location shooting and Thomas Newman's score help it a little. ** out of 4.

Rare straight role for Goldie Hawn--no yucking it up here--is a totally serious part, a departure from the rest of her oeuvre. She portrays the happy wife to a husband who dies under supposed tragic circumstances, only for her investigation into his past turning up results she couldn't possibly have prepared for. John Heard is mainly involved in the ending with Hawn doing a lot of the heavy dramatic lifting. This part for Hawn features a rather aching, somber, and frustrated character; learning that your loving husband is a totally completely person, her Adrienne having to come to terms with some harsh realities, the role requires a certain type of disturbed, unsettled, and saddened temperament/response to the developments that transpire during her investigation. Heard's calm and rather ordinary phone call to Hawk, having their daughter in his possession, demanding the jewel necklace, and wanting her not to phone the police (or tell the woman next to her what their conversation's about) proves just how much of a sociopath he really is. Heard does lose it at the end when he must explain to Hawn that he does what is necessary when he has her cornered and seemingly at his mercy. Moody photography is a major plus even if a lot of the Hollywood devices (cat jumping out, pigeons flocking about out the window, the eye peering through the crack of a closet door, the little girl complaining to mommy in horror that a man was in her room) typical in these types of thrillers are used throughout. Doesn't invent the wheel, but Deceived should be of interest to fans of Goldie. The loud sound effects and noisy, obtrusive score, especially at the end when Heard is after Goldie and the necklace, can be a bit overbearing, but I like this change of pace for Hawn, trying a different genre (although, Foul Play was kind of comic thriller), and not relying on her gifted comedy skills must have been a challenge worth taking. Identity theft, so prevalent today, works its way into the investigation revealing Heard for the fraud that he is.

A handsomely-made thriller saddled with a silly script, cluttered up with incredible situations and plot-holes. Goldie Hawn, toning down her upbeat persona, is curiously thoughtful and tense playing a woman whose husband has just died in a mysterious car accident; little by little she discovers he wasn't who he seemed to be. Nothing exciting or substantial is done with this premise, the child actors in the movie are just awful, and the long finale (a foot chase) doesn't do anybody any favors. The film's classy look dwarfs the marginal plotting (it leads one to expect much more), and the tag at the end--a freeze on Hawn looking wistful--is humorously self-defeating. There's nothing so thoughtful about "Deceived". ** out of ****