Deceived (1991)

Overrated and overhyped

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

I was in the mood to watch an exciting who-done-it, so I picked this old Goldie Hawn flick, 'Deceived'. I was deceived, all right! It started off promising, then veered into the land of absurdity. The villain can be spotted almost immediately, so it is no longer 'who' done it, but why'd he do it.It always amuses me how the heroine puts herself in harm's way. If you are a lone female and come to an apartment with an open door, contents strewn everywhere, would you continue searching the rooms? I think not. Goldie's character does it multiple times. I understand that these movies are fiction and there has to be danger involved for the main character, but it still is not at all believable.I won't delve into the plot and give anything away, but I will quote two lines at the film's conclusion between the main character and the 'bad guy' to show the caliber of the story.'Are you going to kill me too?''I am going to kiss you. Then I will kill you, because that's love, too.''Nuff said. Five stars because the movie DID keep my interest and I watched it to the bitter end, but I wish it had been a nine or ten star effort

Single Manhattan art restorer Adrienne (Hawn) is stood up on a blind date in a restaurant but sees Jack Saunders - a charming man at another table. They meet where she works the next day as he drops off a piece to be restored. He is a museum curator. They have a lot in common and their 'meet-cute' evolves into a date and they more than hit it off. After a whirlwind courtship they are married.Flash-forward five years and they remain happily together with an adorable daughter. Their business interests coincide and they share a group of like-minded friends/co-workers as well as a chic and cozy apartment in a trendy neighborhood and enough to afford a young housekeeper. They don't appear to have it all but seem to have everything worth having and about as much as anyone should realistically ask for out of life.Things take a dramatic turn for the worse when the resident expert appraiser (Rubes) at the museum is found dead by Adrienne. It is an apparent suicide. This coincides with the discovery that a necklace in the museum worth $4.5 million is a forgery. A number of suspicious events Jack explains away to Adrienne with perfectly rational answers precedes an argument, a frank declaration of not feeling trusted and his departure from their home.Jack almost immediately perishes in a fiery car wreck leaving Adrienne a grieving and perplexed widow raising a very young daughter without a father. Her suspicions about him are momentarily obscured by having to explain death to her child and begin life anew with a gaping chasm once filled by a man who beguiled her so completely and capably handled so many responsibilities for her and their daughter.Those suspicions arise again exacerbated by revelations that the man she thought she knew was a different person altogether. The web of falsehoods is bold but not particularly intricate. The man who weaved them was also not very smooth or even adequately careful in many different aspects of his plan. Adrienne needs do little more than some elementary sleuthing following each massive lead to the conclusion.The shock for the heroine and the viewer rests in how much of a commitment the baddie makes in playing it all out and what he was prepared to leave behind in seeing it through. His play was a long-haul deception measured and executed over years leaving him no room for emotional attachments. This is a criminal type looking for his only big score before he takes early retirement.At any point he might have become seduced by the lie he was living and decided to abandon his material long-term objective to enjoy what he had. But a creature like this doesn't have the capacity to appreciate the things that normal people do or understand their value.John Heard's performance transitioning between being Prince Charming to volatile monster is convincing at all stages of his metamorphosis. When he begins haunting his own house while only pretending to be dead there is a strong vibe of eeriness. He appears to be something vastly different than human though not quite demonic or alien.A surprise hit in fall 1991 it marked the beginning of the late stage of Goldie Hawn's erratic but nevertheless quite successful career in feature films. She was in her mid-40's playing a character at least a decade younger. Whether the role suits her or not she at least was in something. She has only been in 31 productions. The English director Damian Harris has himself only made a dozen movies in 30 years.Beatrice Straight's last movie.Partly filmed at Toronto's world-renowned Royal Ontario Museum one may view an exterior shot of the beautiful old building before it was vandalized when a glass modern architecture monstrosity was erected on the Northwest wing facing Bloor Street. It's slanted glass remains a delightful canvas for the modern art the Toronto pigeon and seagull population craft upon it with their feces.

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.

This movie is a mystery with plenty of twists, but the real star is Goldie Hawn's performance. I find it hard to believe that she has not done more of this type of movie.The major problem I had with this movie was the big fat plot holes, namely how you get a car to flip with a dead guy driving or how a guy that works in town gets away with a second family, or if he was Daniel, then who was fencing the rare Egyptian jewelry, or why didn't she fall down the hole too? Too many leaps of faith are expected of the audience and exactly why I did not rate this movie higher. I did, however, enjoy the "New York" ambiance, the sets and the wardrobe (which was not too embarrassing from the early 90's). Goldie could try another hairstyle though, really, it was a little distracting remembering that it has not changed since her Sock It To Me days. All in all, it was fun to watch and it does jump your heart a few times, just as a good thriller should. Definitely worth watching for Goldie's performance alone.