Paycheck

REVIEW
Michael Jennings (Affleck), a callow computer genius, agrees to an intensive, top-secret, three-year-long gig for which he'll be paid $90 million. The catch is that those three years will be completely erased from his memory. Upon attempting to collect his paycheck, he discovers that he forfeited his money and mailed himself a collection of banal, everyday objects — which turn out to be clues as to why everyone seems to want him dead. An intriguing premise (courtesy of famed sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick) is sabotaged by some ridiculous plot holes, a lightweight lead and a protracted last third. Director Woo does provide a couple of delicious flourishes (incongruous slow motion, operatic meet-cute introduction of Thurman's character), but he can't overcome the script's inadequacies, and should have brought a harder edge to the film. It doesn't say much for a thriller about a man running for his life that we never feel the main character is in any real danger.