almost a great film, but with cheap lousy ending

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2007)

This is in many ways an excellent movie. Although it pretends to be deeper than it really is, it is still smart, stylish, extremely well made, neatly paced, with strong performances from all the actors.
Yet I must lodge a complaint. It's the ending. Difficult to explain what goes wrong here without revealing it, so I'll write in generalities. By the end of the film, when the pieces at last begin to fit together, we come to feel some compassion for the characters that we know are essentially decent and we learn to wish the best for them. The ending betrays that, and is thus annoying and disappointing. Whatever first went wrong with the killer here happens yet again. Life's just a joke, after all, and a rather cruel one.
This is not only unfair to the characters, but to the audience as well. a less violent ending would not have betrayed the heart of the film, but would instead have reached the depth the film pretends to seek.
Definitely worth the trip, but might be more satisfying if you just skip the last five minutes.