Deception

I just can't seem to tell the difference between Ruby Cairo, As Good As Dead, The End of Violence, and Harrison's Flowers, since they all star Andie MacDowell searching for her lost husband! If you've never seen any of them and have no clue where to start, just pick your favorite of the husbands and rent that one. Do you like Cary Elwes? Rent As Good As Dead. Like Bill Pullman? Try The End of Violence. Were you always a sucker for David Strathairn? Check out Harrison's Flowers. And if Viggo Mortensen floats your boat more than the others, watch Ruby Cairo.

In this one, Viggo dies in a plane crash, so Andie doesn't exactly chase after him. She does chase after his financial records, which are left in a total mess. She soon learns he didn't walk the straight-and-narrow, and as one clue leads her to another to another, she's sent on a trip around the world to find out more about what he left behind. Once in Egypt, hence the title, Andie meets Liam Neeson, the head of a philanthropic organization. Fans of Viggo, don't despair: there are quite a few flashbacks to satisfy your eye candy. And if you love Andie, this sexy thriller is a fun one! If you liked it, check out Harrison's Flowers next. It's a touch more violent, but it's still good.

Ruby Cairo is a would-be good movie despite the choppy plot and horrible script. Liam Neeson is reason enough to see this movie because his performance is the best out of the whole (mis)cast. Andie McDowell's scenes where she was talking to herself were very unreal and uncharacteristic of any human. The love story between Liam and herself was charming but thrust into the movie suddenly and was not picked up at the right times in the plot. The ending, however was cute, despite no real victory on Andie's part. 1/2 *.

Andie MacDowell is not a strong enough actress to carry this on her back as she did. She was basically a sleuth but the persona she conveyed made it seem as if her sleuthing powers just appeared by magic--amazing what script writers can do! It is totally improbable that she could have walked around some of the worst districts of Cairo looking like she did and remain unmolested. Ditto the locations in Mexico. The plot was weak and there were a lot of loose threads. The most interesting part of the movie was the scene shot in a Coptic church in Cairo and, of course, Hollywood had to pull its punches. For while Dr. Lamb credits them with saving his life, it is not clear that he has actually converted. John Faro, the lynch pin for the movie's plot and Bessie's husband, was a weak character, weakly portrayed by Mortensen. I agree with some of the other reviewers that the movie started out to be interesting but began to fall apart about 1/3 of the way into the picture. The ending was very weak--a characteristic of American movies for several decades now and one of my pet peeves.

When Bessie Faro's (Andie MacDowell) husband Johnny (Viggo Mortensen) dies in a plane crash in Veracruz, Mexico, she finds that his air cargo business is deeply in the red. When she visits the airline's terminal in Veracruz, she discovers her husband was pumping large amounts of money into bank accounts all over the world.

I watched this as part of an appreciation for Liam Neeson, and was sad to see this really was not a big role for him. Of course, it was an even smaller role for Mortensen (who was not yet famous), but this is not a Neeson film. Now, that being said, it is still a decent mystery.

I would really like to see this again and get a better feel for it. I get the impression it was not widely appreciated in its day and could get a better hearing now (2014).

Any film that can draw you in completely, as this movie did with me, succeeds. I missed the first ten minutes not knowing even the plot, and I was immediately taken in by Andie MacDowell's quest for answers regarding her husband.

I'm surprised by the many negative comments and reviews posted here. This was one of the few movies (like "Pyscho") that took me on sort of a ride that I didn't want to end. This movie was intelligent and I found it to be a great escape as Ruby travelled around the world. I'll certainly never visit Athens, Greece, or stand on top of one of the pyramids. But I felt like I was there. Whomever said this was boring must have had their eyes closed the entire time. I never realized how beautiful Andie MacDowell was until I saw this film or what a really good actress she was. Liam Neeson was a plus even if his role was rather short.

You can bet I'll be recommending this film to others as I do whenever I see a really good movie. Hope to see this released on DVD soon.