Movie Review: Paranoia

A young man confused and torn against the wills of three strong men. When set against a backdrop of industrial espionage, Joseph Finder's novel has everything to entertain the reader. But when translated to the screen, the result may  not provide the same kind of exhilaration to the viewer. The movie directed by Robert Luketic based on the novel by Joseph Finder falls flat because of bad casting.

Adam Cassidy played Liam Hemsworth works for Gary Oldman's Nicholas Wyatt. Although Adam gets thrown out of the company following a miserable presentation, he makes an impression of Wyatt to get a job offer. The job requires him to penetrate into the corporation run by Wyatt's competitor in order to steal cutting edge technology. Wyatt's competition is Jock Goddard played by Harrison Ford. To justify the long-running rivalry, Jock and Wyatt were partners at one point with Jock playing the mentor. They parted after Wyatt felt he was being used by Jock. One of Jock's employees Emma Jennings played by Amber Heard makes the new job more interesting and promising for Adam while his ailing father(Richard Dreyfus) helplessly looks upon the rapid disintegration of his son.

The drama is engaging in Paranoia. Liam Hemsworth possesses neither the acting capability not the screen presence for being pitted against three stalwarts namely Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfus. On top of it, the pedestrian way of treating the drama results in a boring film. Of the three stalwarts, Gary Oldman gives a spirited performance. Harrison Ford and Richard Dreyfus sleepwalks through their respective role. There is a minute of fireworks on screen when Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman comes across each other. To sit through a movie for a minute of fireworks is ridiculous. Amber Heard tries to shake away her sex appeal by doing a girl who is struggling in a man's world. But it falls flat.

Stay away from this movie.

Language: English

Genre: Thriller

Rating: *

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Comments

  1. Yup! a hard to find honest review. Though I enjoyed the book ... specially the father-son relation milking by the wyatt :)

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    1. I didn't know it was based on a book when I started watching the movie. The movie was very boring. After the movie, I checked the synopsis of the novel. Judging by the synopsis and what I saw on the screen, there was a lot of drama and thrills that could have been added. In effect, this becomes a wasted opportunity.

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