Shoot-em-up Sophistry

Rating: 5/10 (26 December 2010)

This whole movie can be summed up in one phrase: "The playa got played."
I've seen the gamut in these reviews from raves to rants. And the truth is, ironically, the same point as the movie: You make your own reality. Like the example I've used so often from Antoine de St Exupery, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) "Did the sheep eat the rose? Did you create holes in the box?"
The elements are all present to make this a wonderful movie of your OWN interpretation. But if you wait for someone else to put the glitter and paint together you'll be disappointed. On the surface we have a mess of provocative ideas, many conflicting, but you can still add your own interpretation that takes the film as given, cheap sophistry with shoot 'em up action scenes, and turns it into something special like the old board game with so many alternate endings.
Spoilers:
Here's my choice of how I chose to put the glitte , paint and paper together...You are involved in industrial espionage and involved with corporations trading and hiding secrets. In the process you learn of the ultimate trade secret: how to literally steal ideas from others, and how to implant ideas of your own in their heads. You begin to dabble in it yourself but your pride gets the best of you. As you convince yourself of your proficiency you unwittingly run into the most terrible secret of one of your clients. You are a beginner and they are the experts and you unlocked: The fatal flaw...Doubting all reality. Now your mind is in free fall. You no longer know what is real or a dream or if there is any ultimate reality anymore. The stability of your family which you thought would always ground you is gone. You shared the terrible secret with your wife and she killed herself...or did you? Now all you can do is continue forward, trying to find out what's real and to forget the terrible knowledge that nothing may be. You got infected by the process you were trying to infect others with: Doubt And it's all set to the dreamy tune your subconscious soothed you with "Non, Je ne regrette riens"...I regret nothing...But you do. The playa got played.