Today’s quick review: Paranoia. Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth), a junior employee at a tech company, gets caught between a rock and a hard place when Nicolas Wyatt (Gary Oldman), the head of the company, blackmails him into spying on Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford), his biggest rival. Adam infiltrates Jock’s company and uses his connection to Emma Jennings (Amber Heard) to steal information, only to hit a snag when he tries to deliver it to Wyatt.
Paranoia is a crime thriller about corporate espionage. Liam Hemsworth stars as Adam, an ambitious engineer whose mistake puts him at the mercy of his cutthroat boss. Paranoia aims to be a slick thriller about a bright but misguided young man who gets caught between two of the leaders in his field. The movie’s promising setup and talented cast are undermined by a script that is not as clever as it tries to be.
Paranoia has a hard time making Adam into a character worth following. Liam Hemsworth does a decent job with the role, but Adam shows little of the brilliance that he is supposed to have. He is consistently behind the curve, walks into obvious traps, and rarely takes the initiative. The same goes for the other characters: serviceable acting let down by character decisions that are not as cunning as the movie pretends.
The final product is a light and reasonably enjoyable thriller that suffers from weak characters and a couple of glaring plot holes. Viewers who are just looking for a bit of entertainment will find that Paranoia gets the job done. But the movie never realizes its potential, and what should be a battle of wits between three technological geniuses instead devolves into a linear story that never does anything unexpected.
For a corporate drama about an ambitious executive sparring with an unscrupulous mentor, check out Wall Street. For a crime thriller about a man caught in a similar predicament thanks to his misuse of a mind-altering drug, try Limitless. For a crime comedy about a young man caught between two feuding crime kingpins, try Lucky Number Slevin. For another thriller that peeks inside a tech company, try The Circle.
[5.7 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413495/). I give it a 6.0 for a decent plot that’s not as clever as its premise requires.