REVIEW 'Paycheck' delivers with suspense, dramatic stunts

The movie's such a nail-biter, the viewer doesn't notice the holes in the plot.
By MILAN PAURICH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Hong Kong action maestro John Woo's unexpectedly thoughtful 2002 WWII combat drama, "Wind-talkers," got creamed at the box office thanks to a slew of competing battle flicks ("Black Hawk Down" and "We Were Soldiers" among them). "Paycheck," Woo's latest big-budget action spectacular, could very well have its box-office wings clipped by the looming shadow of two films that helped pulverize "Windtalkers" last summer: "Minority Report" and "The Bourne Identity."
Like "Report," "Paycheck" is a futuristic chase thriller based on a short story by the late cult science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. And, with shades of "Identity," "Paycheck" stars one of the "Good Will Hunting" guys (Matt Damon then, Ben Affleck now) as an amnesiac on the run from deadly assassins.
If Woo strikes out again due to bad release-date timing, it'll be a double shame because "Paycheck" is an above-average entertainment that deserves to be one of the holiday season's key sleepers.
Not even distributor Paramount Pictures seems to know the movie's real value, though. Unlike the same studio's Thanksgiving turkey, "Timeline," which somehow managed to rate a daytime press screening, they didn't bother showing it to critics until three days before its Christmas Day opening. Go figure.
Movie's premise
Rebounding nicely from his "Gigli" fiasco, the aptly cast Affleck plays Michael Jennings, a brilliant "reverse engineer" who gets paid obscene amounts of money to disassemble high-tech equipment then reassemble them into even more technologically advanced gizmos. The only downside is that Jennings has to get his memory erased after each assignment to avoid security leaks. Shorty (Paul Giamatti, so good as Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor"), Jennings' best friend and business associate, performs the "memory wipe" that puts the finishing touch on every job.
When Jennings goes to collect his latest eight-figure salary -- this time from a three-year stint at Allcom, a megacorporation run by old buddy Jimmy Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart) -- he discovers a rude surprise. Instead of a paycheck, Jennings receives a mysterious envelope containing random objects such as a matchbook, sunglasses and hairspray. He's also told that he forfeited his original salary a month earlier.
Past and future
Here's where things get really interesting. Because his memory has already been vaporized, Jennings has no idea why he's being pursued by Rethrick's goons and two federal agents. The only people he can trust are Shorty and, after some latent memory flashes trigger selected highlights from his past, Allcom co-worker Rachel (Uma Thurman), the woman he supposedly loves.
Everything boils down to "The Machine," a laser-enhanced lens that can curve outside the solar galaxy and see into the future. Fortunately for Jennings, those seemingly useless trinkets he collected in lieu of cash turn out to be clues to his past ... or is it his future?
Woo and screenwriter Dean Georgaris turn this Hitchcockian premise into such an ingenious nail-biter that you don't realize how riddled with plot holes and implausibilities it really is until the closing credits. Sheer adrenaline counts for a lot in popcorn movies, and Woo stylishly serves up enough high-octane stunts (a motorcycle chase could become a new classic) and "check-your-brain-at-the-door" thrills to satisfy fans of "MI:2" or "Face/Off," his biggest Hollywood hits to date.
No, "Paycheck" isn't in the same league as those two action doozies, but with Woo so expertly turning the screws, I don't think anyone will mind.
XWrite Milan Paurich at milanpaurich@aol.com.