Paranoia: Enjoyable Despite Fuzzy Message

Following the increasingly rampant trend to propound a hashtag as tagline, the ad campaign for Paranoia instructs us to #ChangeTheGame. You may think that seeing the film would give you a clear definition of the game in question, and how, precisely, it is changed. There is no such clarity. The game could refer to the dangerous transparency of today’s perpetually connected and socially mediated society, or the specific war of egos between two mobile technology kings, or, to get lofty for a moment, the fault lines of the American dream itself. Are any of those games changed or even addressed in a fully satisfying manner? Not really, but playing the game does bring some entertainment value with it. If you like your Paranoia served with laughs, thrills, and occasionally eye-rolling dialogue, then this is the film for you.

The story revolves around the journey of Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth), a 27-year-old intern for Wyatt Telecom. Cassidy hopes to ascend to the world of “the other half,” as Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman), the company’s CEO, describes the segment of society which, from the looks of the offices and apartments, is closer to the 1%. Upon getting unceremoniously fired after a presentation that finds Wyatt more concerned with the warmness of his tea, Adam and his fellow interns hit the town and revel in vodka shots and Empire of the Sun remixes—all paid for by the company’s provisional credit card. Scanning the club, Adam locks eyes with Emma (Amber Heard) in a sequence that is admittedly less meet-cute and more meet-so-horny, quickly followed by some off-screen coital action that will be repeatedly referenced for comic relief. The next morning, Emma slams the door in his face and later calls him a “bridge and tunnel” guy, implying that his Brooklyn roots and love for “cheese fries” rule him out as relationship material. Add in a sick father (Richard Dreyfuss) with rocketing medical bills and Cassidy's need to be paid, and we can understand why Adam would leap at an opportunity to get a high-level, corner office position at Eikon, the other big technology powerhouse in the city, which so happens to be run by Wyatt’s former mentor, Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford). The only catch is that he will have to steal trade secrets for Wyatt. This increasing game (there it is!) of blackmail, exploitation, and double-crosses will take Adam to the brink of Paranoia.

The film hits its stride in allowing the audience to experience high society and corporate status vicariously through Adam. He is instructed to “look the part” and outfitted in new suits, digs, and a sports car. On his first day at Eikon, he immediately endears himself at a meeting involving some form of three-dimensional GPS. In short order he is enjoying himself at an estate in the Hamptons, reconnecting intimately with the remarkably unsuspicious Emma, and swimming in the deep blue of private pools. In one of the film’s most memorable shots, the disturbance of the water by Wyatt’s arriving helicopter reminds us in visual terms that Adam’s fun comes on someone else’s dime—and accompanying avarice. Add in the potential threats of Wyatt’s assistant (Embeth Davidtz), designated hit man (Julian McMahon), and the watchful eye of the FBI, and we know that this is not going to turn out well.

Nonetheless, for a film entitled Paranoia, there are only a few sequences that involve Adam’s increasing claustrophobia about ever-present surveillance. Despite setting up some intelligent social commentary about people who increasingly prefer isolation to connectedness, later scenes choose not to implicate the larger problem and instead focus on the fact that Adam is being controlled by a specific entity. Thus we are treated to sequences of Adam tearing apart his loft in the name of dismantling every camera and device, or suspiciously scoping out for fellow spies at a park with his father. Neither Adam nor the film finds a contradiction in the fact that he is in business to promote the further omnipresence of mobile devices, allowing conglomerates to monitor their customers in equally invasive ways.  The alleged vice shared by Adam, Wyatt, and Jock? Greed, as rendered in oversimplified terms. Yet for all the allusions to Jock’s duplicity, I remember him more for his description of a future phone that will replace the need for wallets and keys while making himself comfortable in a sprawling armchair. The fact that Harrison Ford plays Jock as employing casual affectations and incisive jabs with equal relish (“And now I’m standing on your neck!”) makes it hard not to like him as much as, if not more than, the occasionally colorless Adam.

Although portrayed gamely by Liam Hemsworth, the character of Adam is mostly defined by what he is not, rather than what he is. With his scrappy, industrious spirit, Adam is motivated by a relatable desire to be wealthy, important, and free—the opposite of his clock-puncher father. The problem derives from the fact that the script tries to have it both ways: Making his father both a stakes figure, in poor health and in need of support from his motherless son, and a signpost for Adam’s potential corruption. Adam disregards his advice in lines that come across as petulant and unsavory, and in one of the film’s early leaps of logic, Adam chooses to blow $16,000 on a bottle service tab rather than pay for some of his father’s $40,000 in medical bills. The fact that Wyatt subsequently addresses this discrepancy does not suddenly make it permissible in the world of the film, and goes back to a rule that should not be forgotten: Pointing out a character’s inconsistencies does not suddenly render them believable. The bottom line is that for all the talk of Adam’s deference to his father, his scaling to the top of the corporate ladder is for the sake of one person—himself.

Paranoia bears the fingerprints of director Robert Luketic and screenwriters Jason Dean Hall and Barry Levy. There are elements of Luketic’s 21, along with Hall’s Spread and Levy’s Vantage Point. From 21 we have the same high stakes of illicit money-making, balanced with the newfound joys of surrogate social elevation. From Spread we have a similarly attractive male protagonist who is trying to find his way in a morally nebulous world, trusting his good looks and charisma to extricate him from dark situations. Finally, from Vantage Point, we have a similarly telegraphed plot that takes elements of classic thrillers as viewed through the lens of modern technology, while still avoiding some of the deeper complications posed by that technology’s role in society.

The result is an exciting, engaging, and rarely dull movie that nonetheless leaves you, well, not paranoid, and probably not even thinking about the necessity of paranoia in today’s society upon leaving the theater. Compare it with Enemy of the State, that underrated Tony Scott flick from the late Nineties featuring Will Smith and Gene Hackman, to see an example of an action picture that entertains while posing serious questions. For all the musings on morality, Paranoia is ultimately a film with little concern about morals. The human dilemmas of mobile transparency and social inequality are given lip service, which for some audience members will be enough. Ultimately, if you want to see a stylized rags-to-riches tale about corporate intrigue, featuring engaging performances and generally effective action sequences, you will be entertained by Paranoia.