Synopsis
An American writer living in exile in London, Philip listens to women. His English mistress, who visits him regularly in the studio that serves as their refuge. A student he loved in another life. A former lover confined to a hospital in New York.
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Cast
- Denis PodalydèsPhilip
- Léa SeydouxThe English Lover
- Emmanuelle DevosRosalie
- Anouk GrinbergPhilip's Wife
- Mădălina ConstantinThe Czech
- Miglen MirtchevIvan
- Rebecca MarderThe Student
- Saadia BentaïebThe Prosecutor
- André OumanskyPhilip's Father
- Gennadiy FominThe Czech Writer Friend
Recommendations
- 80
Screen Daily
This zig-zagging emotionally perceptive tale of an American writer abroad and the women he has bedded — or perhaps merely written about having bedded — is accomplished French filmmaking the way arthouse denizens like it. - 60
Variety
Arnaud Desplechin’s Deception is a strange, stifling but frequently intriguing attempt to find a cinematic match for the literary voice of Philip Roth, from his autofictional 1990 novel of the same name. - 50
TheWrap
Deception, as a novel and as a film, offers a curio for obsessives, a postcard for archivists, and a not-too-interesting bump in the road for everyone else. - 30
The Hollywood Reporter
Like a beltway surrounding its hero’s bloviating ego trips and massive libido, the film keeps turning in circles around a subject that’s only truly interesting if you’re Philip himself. - 25
The Playlist
Desplechin and his film seem to have a perverse and single-minded fixation not on “dazzling, interesting” women, but lost, tragic ones—women who can gravitate toward and glom onto Philip (Denis Podalydès), an inexplicably francophone version of the author, who lavishes the attention. - 20
The Guardian
A film full of people smiling knowingly and laughing delightedly at each other’s not-especially-funny-or-interesting remarks, and it’s all the more insufferable for things the film gets fundamentally and structurally wrong.
