A Portrait of True Immorality in USA’s ‘Ultimate Deception’

Talk about life imitating art. If Barry Woodkin, the lead character in “Ultimate Deception,” wasn’t based upon a real person, it would be easy to view his behavior as dramatic overkill. One can only wonder, as this USA Network original film unfolds, whether such an utterly amoral individual can actually exist.

The answer, unfortunately, is yes. Woodkin is a very real person--now in prison under a life sentence; the film’s depiction of his twisted passage through the lives of two innocent families is the dramatization of a case that took place in Denver and Topeka, Kan., in 1991.

Woodkin, portrayed by Richard Grieco, has all the qualifications to fill the role. He is good-looking and smooth-talking, capable of doing or saying anything to get what he wants. As the story begins, Woodkin seems to be every woman’s dream companion. But when he and his new wife, Terry (Yasmine Bleeth), are unable to conceive a child, his other qualities begin to emerge.

Initially, Terry is delighted when Woodkin tells her he has found an available baby for adoption. Terry embraces the role of mother, her happiness marred only when Woodkin tells her that the infant’s teenage mother has threatened to reclaim her baby girl if she does not receive a large sum of money.

At that point, Terry--her suspicions aroused--begins a search for information that eventually leads to the climactic revelation of Woodkin’s true nature.

The production, structured over a fast-paced script by Victoria Wozniak, is first-rate. Grieco finds precisely the right combination of suaveness and deception in his rendering of Woodkin. And Bleeth’s interpretation of Terry makes a convincing transition from gullible bride to determined truth-seeker.

Laszlo George’s cinematography is filled with flowing camera moves, and Ron Wisman’s editing gives every scene an urgent, propulsive pacing. Less obviously, but equally important, Dennis McCarthy’s ethereal score, with its soaring soprano voice, provides a powerful subliminal subtext for this compelling, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale.

* “Ultimate Deception” can be seen tonight at 9 on USA.