More multifariously tricky, you die.

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2008)

This film is a masterpiece because it is nothing but what we expect and we expect something different at every single moment of it, so that we are disappointed and surprised and held breathless every fifteen minutes when one of our expectations goes down the chute. At first we think it is one more private eye's business or investigation in some kind of affair with some married man. But it does not fit at all with the professional dedication of the suspected unfaithful man. He is obviously looking for something fishy in the water supply of Los Angeles he is responsible for. But then he does meet with a girl, doesn't he after all. And yet there is something fishy in that water supply. So it might be a big embezzlement case. Let Los Angeles pay for the water they will never get and then let Los Angeles get to the water where it will be, and let them pay again. The point is it does not explain everything, and especially why the thieving contractor is so keen on getting the hooker his son in law was seeing. Too keen to be honest. Is she a hooker after all? And we go on doubting, hoping, being disappointed and never getting to the truth of the business. Who the killer really is? Who the police really work for? Who the police tries to protect and cover? Why do the police do that unprofessional act? There is just no good enough answer, and even at the end, when the tycoon contracting embezzler gets the last word we know we are off the point and losing all footing in too deep water. That's probably the best part of this film. You just have to accept the situation the way it is and do nothing just because some people are big enough, rich enough or powerful enough to do exactly what they want and everyone else has only one choice, die or say yes-sir-mister-master-sir-boss. Even killing his own child is not a no-go option for such a greedy person. Remember, change we can, but change these tycoons cannot. So better change them than expect them to change. Why not send them on a perpetual vacation in some desert island that has absolutely no connection with the outside world, But dummy, that's just the point, such a place does not exist. So better put them to death, put them to sleep or deep freeze them if you don't want to deep fry them, which stinks a little bit. But any other way will let them go on with their shaggy and dirty business. But gosh it reaps a lot of profit in. Look at Madoff.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines