Paycheck [DVD] [2004]

Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is specialized in reverse engineering and his job consists in working non-stop for several weeks in each project he faces. Upon completion, he gets his money and his memory of that time interval is erased. The longest Michael has worked on a project is two months, but now his boss entices him to work on a three-year project. The bait is an eight-figure remuneration. Of course Michael has doubts, but the offer is too tempting for him to pass. By the time he finishes the project, he gets his one big paycheck in exchange for three years of his life: close to one hundred million dollars.

Michael gets a huge surprise though, when he finds out from his attorney that he has forfeited the portfolio and that the only possessions to recover are a set of items in an envelope at the attorney's office. Michael sent these items to himself, and they all look worthless; the list includes a can of hair spray, a pair of glasses, a book of matches, a bullet, a lighter, a watch and several other little an seemingly unimportant personal effects. When the FBI comes after him, Michael realizes that there is something wrong and that the items he sent to himself are meant to help him solve the mystery and keep him alive.

Even though I am not a big fan of Ben Affleck, I think he does a good job in this movie and that he fits his role very well. I am a fan of Uma Thurman though, who in the film plays the part of Dr. Porter, a lady that captivated Michael since he met her and who also works for Michael's boss. As usual, Thurman's performance is convincing and shows the passion she puts in her work. This is a good movie for spending a couple of hours entertained, but it is not one I would enjoy seeing repeatedly.

This first half hour is strong and well handled, in particular the scenes that involve the engineer being placed in jeopardy and extricating himself with seemingly useless items are very well done. However, after the strong start the film loses its way. Once the conspiracy is revealed it simply heads for the conclusion at breakneck speed via a series of action set-pieces. In my opinion, the best Philip K. Dick adaptations (e.g. Blade Runner) explore the themes of book but Paycheck simply falls back on a set of well-handled but ultimately formulaic action sequences. Quite enjoyable in a rather mindless way but much of it is unbelievable (a ninja engineer and a kung-fu botanist?!?) and a number of inconsistencies to creep in which detract from the film.

Another problem is that rhe casting never quite works: Ben Affleck is OK but playing an amnesiac leads to inevitable and unfavourable comparisons with Matt Damon in the Bourne films. Uma Thurman, who plays the botanist love interest, can be excellent but this is not one of her better performances, she seems oddly disinterested and often appears to be just going through the motions. The supporting cast are all competent but none are outstanding.

I enjoyed the movie, but after the first half an hour I had to switch my brain off. The real disappointment is that it could have been so much better.

There is a major surprise in this film set up by the trailer, which introduces Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), a brilliant scientist of some sort who does ultra secret jobs, gets his mind blanked for the period he worked, and then picks up a paycheck. However, after his biggest job instead of a multi-million dollar paycheck he discovers that he has sent himself an envelope with 20 objects that he has never seen before (okay, he has seen them, he just does not remember any of them). The inference in the trailer is that these are clues as to what he did and why he would give up the biggest paycheck of all. It has to be something pretty big and pretty bad to give up all that money. Chase scenes and fights are tangential to that and not all that impressive (the point of a motorcycle is not speed but manuverability, but apparently Jennings is not smart enough to know that and take advantage of it).

But to get back to the crux of the problem with this 2003 film, those items are not clues but something more interesting that should have been the driving force of this story. On the off chance that has not been given away already by what you have seen and heard about "Paycheck" I will refrain from saying more, because when I picked up on what was really happening was when I really got interested in this film. But Woo focuses on the physical rather than the cerebral and this film jumps off the tracks. You know things are just plain wrong when the best moves in an action film are done by a robotic machine.

Ultimately, "Paycheck" reminds me of the few computer games I have played in the past such as "Phantasmagoria" and "Gabriel Knight," and I was excited by that idea. This film needed to be more like "Memento," where the emphasis is on being clever instead of dumbing everything down to action sequences that are decidedly unimpressive. There are some great ideas at the heart of this movie but they were quickly forgotten and buried beneath substandard Hollywood schlock. Besides, after the "Kill Bill" films it is hard to see Uma Thurman playing a relatively ordinary woman. But the main thing here is that once again Hollywood has taken a pretty good idea and thrown it away.