In Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 suspense thriller North by Northwest, advertising executive Cary Grant didn't know why everyone wanted him dead.
In John Woo's holiday thriller Paycheck, Ben Affleck faces a similar dilemma. The big difference is that Grant wasn't the spy everyone thought he was.
In Paycheck, Affleck is partly responsible for his deadly predicament.
Affleck is Michael Jennings, a master of corporate espionage and a computer wiz who takes the leading computer software programs, breaks them down and builds a better version for his firm.
To make him less culpable and traceable, Michael has the memory of the time it takes him to duplicate the software permanently erased.
It's usually a matter of days.
Then comes the big offer: A paycheck so big he'll never have to work again, but it will take three years of his life.
When Michael resurfaces he has no memory, no paycheck and very little time to find out what he was working on because whatever it was has made him a target for the government and his former employers.
The trick in Paycheck is that Michael knew his life would be in danger so he mailed himself a package with simple items that are both clues and devices he will need to escape the myriad perils that await him.
Woo excels at putting his protagonists through emotional and physical torture -- and Paycheck is classic Woo.
If Affleck isn't trying to outrun a subway train on foot, he's dodging bullets, explosions and cars on a motorcycle.
Michael is convinced the icy blond scientist Rachel (Uma Thurman) is more than a memory twitch, but he doesn't know how deep their relationship is or how to get in touch with her.
There's a tense scene in which the villainous Wolf (Colme Feore) and Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart) try to send in a decoy ice queen. It's fun for the viewer who knows this is a setup and is left wondering when Michael will twig in.
Paul Giamatti provides the comic relief as Michael's friend Shorty, and Feore and Eckhart are effective as the stock heavies.
Paycheck shortchanges its actors because the film really is all about the chases and escapes.
Woo has shoot-out and chase sequences down to a science.
They're slick but they're no longer as tense as they were when he was first adapting his Hong Kong formula for his American movies.
Paycheck's by-the-book thrills speed by giving the film an exhausting pace, but it doesn't translate into the heart-pounding suspense the film promises.
There's always the nagging feeling the danger isn't real or immediate, even if it's expertly choreographed.
Paycheck doesn't have the payoff it should given the dangerous cat-and-mouse game involved.
(This film is rated PG)
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