“Deception” is cold and emotionally vacant

Beware, filmmaker, the dread "erotic thriller." It has stunted greatness. It has smashed careers. And it's given audiences little besides "Fatal Attraction" and an inexhaustible reservoir of late-night Cinemax alone-time specials.

Alas, this admonition comes too late for Marcel Langenegger, the style-forward Swiss who makes his feature directorial debut on "Deception" and promptly runs it aground on a false-climax jetty littered with the likes of "Color of Night," "Wild Orchid" and "Basic Instinct 2." It's a cold, emotionally-vacant place, but hey, at least there's plenty of sex.

From the outset, the cast seems under-matched by the material. Ewan McGregor, in full-on milquetoast mode, plays Jonathan McQuarry, a lonely, sexually-frustrated accountant who lives out of a suitcase and casts sad, longing stares across crowded rooms at women he knows he'll never score. The cute Latina janitrix? Out of his league. The white-collar babe (Michelle Williams from "Brokeback Mountain") on the subway? No chance. Jonathan is blocked.

And gullible? Oh gosh, yes. When manly, cocksure attorney Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman, credible as a villain) implausibly offers a hand of friendship to the nervous number-cruncher, Jonathan never senses the ulterior motive. It's a pick-up, see – designed to lure Jonathan into the sticky throes of an underground sex clique where, with a simple phone call, busy New York professionals can meet for anonymous sex in swanky hotel rooms. Known as "the list," it even has its own, Fight Club-style ground rules. No first names. No business talk. Initiator pays for the room. What's a pimply nerd to do? Armed with Wyatt's "misplaced" cell phone and a borrowed designer suit, Jonathan leaps cheap-haircut-first into a shadowy, smoke-filled playground of strings-free sex, landing a statuesque financial analyst (Natasha Henstridge) and a seasoned Wall Street doyenne (Charlotte Rampling).

It's all very nocturnal and moody, but do we catch a contact-buzz from Jonathan's queasy-arousing exploits? Not really. Deploying the sixtysomething Rampling ("Swimming Pool") as heavy sexual munitions proves misguided on the part of director Langenegger. Intended as wrinkle-blind kink, it just feels kind of pervy.

Ultimately, Jonathan puts the breaks on his sexual spelunking when he gets paired with the mystery woman from the subway, and the ensuing intrigue – something to do with blackmail, murder and illicit wire-transfers – is unsoundly and hastily built on their crazy, irrational, take-it-to-the-limit love. You know, the kind that needs no explanation, or substance.

Ironically, the only authentic-feeling moment between McGregor and Williams comes when they're unclothed. The rest of the time, they're clearly faking it.

“Deception”
Stars: Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Charlotte Rampling
Behind the scenes: Directed by Marcel Langenegger, from a script by Mark Bomback
Rating: R (sexual content, language, brief violence and some drug use)
Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Grade: D+