Thurman rescues bankrupt drama

PAYCHECK stars Ben Affleck as Michael Jennings, a computer whiz who gets paid a small fortune by companies to come up with new systems.

His work is so hush-hush he has to have his memory erased after each project by his agent Shorty (Paul Giamatti), so the poor guy doesn’t even know what he’s been up to.

Along comes Jimmy Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart) who offers Michel the opportunity of a lifetime, $92m for three years work. Despite some reservations, Michael takes the job. The clincher is the chance to work with sexy biologist Rachel Porter (Uma Thurman).

Skip forward three years, the job is done and Michael heads to the bank to pick up his money.

When he gets there he finds he has signed away the money in return for an envelope of trinkets that mean nothing to him. He can’t remember why he did something so stupid and he can’t even remember what he was working on.

But there’s one thing he does know, the FBI are on his tail and he’s going to have to find some answers and put the pieces of the three years of his life back together quickly.

Ben Affleck seems right at home playing a slack-jawed dope, at a loss to understand what’s going on around him. It seems to fit in well with his acting style.

However, there’s good on-screen chemistry between him and Uma Thurman, which manages to paper over some of the plot’s many cracks.

She’s got the kind of presence that he can only dream of.

Paul Giamatti provides some of the film’s lighter moments as Shorty, while Aaron Eckhart is very much at home as the eccentric industrialist Rethrick.

Action, 15. 2/5