Deceived

From the opening scene straight through to the completely bonkers finale, Deceived has got to be one of the most absurd and ridiculous entries in the domestic thriller genre. You know the type, happily married woman slowly but surely discovers that her husband was really a stranger the entire time, complete with assumed names and secondary families. This entry orbits around an antique necklace, so at least there’s something unique to look at, I guess. Goldie Hawn does well against type, John Heard is appropriately charming then menacing, but the whole thing is just an elaborate series of tropes, poorly deployed jump scares, and predictable character developments and story beats. Of course there’s a child that exists to get imperiled in the last act, a family cat to act as a false scare, and an empty warehouse for the heroine to get chased through. The ending is so abrupt you’re left half-wondering if what you’d just watched was a stone-faced farce.