I don't know if this film would have ever been any good in any circumstance, but it was doomed the moment Jessica Alba was cast in the lead. She is completely out of her depth here and the only entertainment value to be found in Paranoid is watching the other actors maneuver around the leaden lump that is Alba.
Chloe (Jessica Alba) is a fashion model. She's kind of a tramp and not very bright or at all interesting, so all she's got going for her is her exotic beauty. And since Alba does nothing for me, I found Chloe about as appealing as a doorstop made out of Spam. Chloe gets invited out to a party in the country by Ned, a guy with some indeterminate job in commercials who wants to get into Chloe's pants. The party is at an old inn now owned by Stan (Iain Glen), a former rock star who's become one of those rich shut-ins that lives off former success while dreaming of future glory that will never come. Ned and Stan used to be in a band together, until the music stopped and Stan married a groupie named Rachel (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Now Stan and Rachel live out in the country with Stan's brother Gordon (Ewen Bremner) and their deaf and somewhat retarded daughter Theresa (Mischa Barton).
After an odd party where Ned's wife shows up, Chloe is stuck at the inn with no ride back to London. Then she discovers the perverted hobby Stan and Gordon have involving video tape and drugged girls, so Chloe ends up chained to a bed in Stan's basement. The only one who can help her is Clive (Kevin Whately), the middle aged man who lives across the street from Chloe's apartment and has been stalking her for the past several weeks.
There's just a whole lot of nothing going on in this movie. Chloe is the heart of the story, the thing upon which all else turns. Unfortunately, Alba's acting ranges from wooden as a tree stump to resembling someone who's had too many electroshock treatments. So, since Chloe alternates between annoying and a non-entity, nothing else in the film works. There's never any tension or suspense or drama or anything. All you get is the rest of the cast futilely grappling with Alba's tar baby of suck.
It doesn't help matters that writer/director John Duigan never apparently realizes that this story doesn't have a point. There's about three-quarters of an idea here, but it never amounts to anything. Duigan's direction is also as standardized and basic as you can get. I'm not sure you can blame Duigan too much for the lifeless heap that is Paranoid. While watching it I got the sense that his producers forced Duigan to take Alba as his lead, but he figured out early on she couldn't do any of the things he needed for Chloe. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Duigan tried to extensively rewrite the script to salvage the film by emphasizing the other characters to compensate for Alba's lack of talent and skill. If that did happen, it didn't work.
Iain Glen is creepily charismatic as a burned out has been who still dominates the circle of losers with which he surrounds himself. Jeanne Tripplehorn is also nice as a woman with a tough and jaded facade who's really falling apart inside. The other performers are all okay, though there is an animatronic quality to Mischa Barton's work as the deaf, ping pong ball-sucking daughter.
This movie is boring and pointless, highlighted only by a parade of exposed breasts, though Alba and Tripplehorn remain covered up at all times. So, if leering at topless extras is your fetish, Paranoid will do the trick for you. But as far as being a worthwhile film this isn't one.
Chloe (Jessica Alba) is a fashion model. She's kind of a tramp and not very bright or at all interesting, so all she's got going for her is her exotic beauty. And since Alba does nothing for me, I found Chloe about as appealing as a doorstop made out of Spam. Chloe gets invited out to a party in the country by Ned, a guy with some indeterminate job in commercials who wants to get into Chloe's pants. The party is at an old inn now owned by Stan (Iain Glen), a former rock star who's become one of those rich shut-ins that lives off former success while dreaming of future glory that will never come. Ned and Stan used to be in a band together, until the music stopped and Stan married a groupie named Rachel (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Now Stan and Rachel live out in the country with Stan's brother Gordon (Ewen Bremner) and their deaf and somewhat retarded daughter Theresa (Mischa Barton).
After an odd party where Ned's wife shows up, Chloe is stuck at the inn with no ride back to London. Then she discovers the perverted hobby Stan and Gordon have involving video tape and drugged girls, so Chloe ends up chained to a bed in Stan's basement. The only one who can help her is Clive (Kevin Whately), the middle aged man who lives across the street from Chloe's apartment and has been stalking her for the past several weeks.
There's just a whole lot of nothing going on in this movie. Chloe is the heart of the story, the thing upon which all else turns. Unfortunately, Alba's acting ranges from wooden as a tree stump to resembling someone who's had too many electroshock treatments. So, since Chloe alternates between annoying and a non-entity, nothing else in the film works. There's never any tension or suspense or drama or anything. All you get is the rest of the cast futilely grappling with Alba's tar baby of suck.
It doesn't help matters that writer/director John Duigan never apparently realizes that this story doesn't have a point. There's about three-quarters of an idea here, but it never amounts to anything. Duigan's direction is also as standardized and basic as you can get. I'm not sure you can blame Duigan too much for the lifeless heap that is Paranoid. While watching it I got the sense that his producers forced Duigan to take Alba as his lead, but he figured out early on she couldn't do any of the things he needed for Chloe. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Duigan tried to extensively rewrite the script to salvage the film by emphasizing the other characters to compensate for Alba's lack of talent and skill. If that did happen, it didn't work.
Iain Glen is creepily charismatic as a burned out has been who still dominates the circle of losers with which he surrounds himself. Jeanne Tripplehorn is also nice as a woman with a tough and jaded facade who's really falling apart inside. The other performers are all okay, though there is an animatronic quality to Mischa Barton's work as the deaf, ping pong ball-sucking daughter.
This movie is boring and pointless, highlighted only by a parade of exposed breasts, though Alba and Tripplehorn remain covered up at all times. So, if leering at topless extras is your fetish, Paranoid will do the trick for you. But as far as being a worthwhile film this isn't one.