Although the concept of the odd couple energizes comedy from the Romans through Neil Simon, it also provides plenty of material for other sorts of works, ranging from the picaresque novel to detective fiction. As the new movie "Deception" demonstrates, joining two entirely disparate characters in a criminal endeavor also generates action and meaning in the thriller. The film uses its own version of the unlikely pairing of two very different men to illuminate some of the darker areas of the world of finance, showing just what all those rich, successful, upwardly mobile Wall Street wheeler-dealers do when they're not manipulating the stock market and fleecing widows and orphans.

Ewan McGregor plays Jonathan McQuarry, an accountant who works for a firm of independent auditors who check the books of various successful New York companies. Working long hours, wrapped up in what he calls the order and symmetry of numbers, he looks and acts like a classic Hollywood nerd; he leads a dull, lonely life, and he is, after all, an accountant. On the night that opens the film, working late in a law office, he meets a suave, handsome, outgoing lawyer, Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman), with whom he quickly becomes friends.

Wyatt shows Jonathan his version of the good life - his splendid apartment, his tennis club, some fancy bars - dazzling the accountant with his sophistication and charm. He also accidentally introduces him to an organization called The List, which specializes in anonymous sexual contacts, set up through the telephone numbers of people on an exclusive roster. The club's membership consists of successful business people who arrange assignations at posh hotels, so they can enjoy sexual encounters without any need for the complications of a relationship or emotional involvement - they're all too busy for that - what one of them calls "intimacy without intricacy."

Jonathan's involvement understandably opens up a whole new world of sensuality, very different from and certainly more exciting than the order and symmetry of his beloved numbers. After a number of engagements with a series of beautiful women - these financial wizards all look terrific - he finds himself falling in love with one of his partners (Michelle Williams), whom he only knows by her initial, S. When she disappears from their hotel room and some mysterious person knocks him unconscious, his sexual adventures lead into a more dangerous territory.

He reports the incident, but the police disbelieve his story, and at any rate cannot locate a woman through her first initial. The accountant also discovers that his friend Wyatt has deceived and manipulated him from the beginning of their friendship, certainly no surprise to the audience, and now attempts to blackmail him into a fancy piece of embezzlement from one of the firms he audits. The plot then shifts to Jonathan's own investigation of The List and his efforts to learn the truth about Wyatt's history and identity.

As he tracks down his adversary through some ingenious methods, the picture moves in several other directions. It literally explodes into violence at what seems a climactic moment, then in effect starts all over again, tacking on two or three other endings before it finishes with a pat, slick bit of sentimentality as false and manipulative as Jonathan's tormentor.

After most of its polished, relatively careful portrayal of the sex life of yuppies -with the mature but still quite desirable Charlotte Rampling thrown in - the movie descends into areas that defy logical analysis and expose the fakery of the script. It never shows just how Wyatt manages to pass off someone else's expensive apartment as his own, for example, or how he acquires Jonathan's passport, or how someone can shoot another person in the middle of a big city without alerting the police or even other citizens.

Of the two members of the odd couple that form the basis of the film, Hugh Jackman dominates the scenes in which he appears. Tall, handsome, charming, he overwhelms the short, plain Ewan McGregor who, in fairness, must play a dull character. Although the factitious script forces him to telegraph much of his character's subtext, Jackman still demonstrates a considerable presence, making his villain the most interesting personality in what might have been an exciting movie. 

Deception

(R), directed by Marcel Langenegger

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