Film Review: Paycheck (2003)

Philip K. Dick is considered to be the giant of science fiction literature because some of his works served as basis for some of the classics of science fiction cinema. Some of his work were adapted in way that left too much to be desired, like in case of 2003 action thriller Paycheck.

The plot, based on Dick’s eponymous 1953 short story, is set in near future. The protagonist, played by Ben Affleck, is Michael Jennings, brilliant engineer who happens to be an expert in reverse engineering. He is approached by James Rethrick (played by Aaron Eckhardt), CEO of Allcom technology company, and offered 92 million US$ in stock options in exchange for working on project that is so secret and delicate that Jennings must have his memory wiped after finishing it. Three years later, after he went through the procedure, Jennings finds that instead of money he receives random set of items with mysterious instructions. It appears it has something to do machine that allows seeing the future and helping its owners earn wealth and power. Jennings uses the machine and sees it would lead to apocalyptic nuclear war and, in order to prevent, decide to use it. He receives help from Rachel Porter (played by Uma Thurman), one of Allcom’s scientist with whom he had been romantically involved during his work. At the same time, he is pursued both Rethrick’s mercenaries and FBI led by Agent Klein (played by Michael C. Hall).

Paycheck had an interesting premise, which, in some ways, wasn’t as original as it could have been only few years earlier, before similarly-themed Minority Report, another (and significantly better) adaptation of Dick’s work. Any chance for Paycheck to reach level of that film was ruined by number of fatal decision. The most obvious was terrible miscasting of Ben Affleck in main role. An actor, who was probably at the nadir of his career of this point, was utterly bland and unbelievable in the role of seemingly brilliant scientist and, not too suprisingly, won Razzie for Worst Actor for this and number of other disappointing roles. Another miscasting occurred with Uma Thurman, an actress who was definitely past her stellar prime, but it could have delivered something on screen. That something, however, required chemistry with Affleck, which was completely non-existent in this film. Another terrible mistake was hiring of John Woo as director. While plot of film seemed best-suited for Hitchcockian mind-bending thriller, Woo took it as opportunity for another spectacular, bombastic display of non-stop nonsensical and utterly forgettable action. This action includes even some self-referential scenes that turn the film into unintentional parody of itself. Although Paycheck had some success at box office, it quickly disappeared from people’s memory and all those who watch it today would probably ask themselves why they spent two hours of their lives on it.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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