Deception

Cinema Paradiso director Guiseppe Tornatore goes the Hitchcockian romantic thriller route with this classy mystery set in Europe's big stakes art world. Geoffrey Rush is splendid as an eccentric auctioneer who is asked to evaluate a priceless antique collection - and ends up falling in love. The seller is a secretive heiress (Sylvia Hoeks), who is agoraphobic and doesn't like to be seen in public. This gives her unattainable goddess status in the eyes of devious sophisticate Rush, who might just have met his match in the conniving greed stakes. Sterling support comes from Jim Sturgess, as a genius engineer rebuilding an 18th-century automaton, and Donald Sutherland, as Rush's occasional partner in low bid scams. If only femme fatale Hoeks didn't pale in comparison. Tornatore also overdoes the symbolism somewhat, but this is still a reasonably absorbing confection of neuroses, glamour and hustle in the old school tradition of Charade and Vertigo.