Builds up great and lets down like no other.

Rating: 5/10 (29 August 2010)

I might just be weird, but i always like to put myself in the place of the characters of the movies i watch. On this one i found my self hating Jamie's character as he shows to be a "system tamed" lawyer whose only intentions are climbing up the ladder of the establishment regardless of the turn out. Through the movie i developed tremendous empathy with the character played by Gerard Butler. In fact i think anyone watching this movie will feel that way. Someone who has his live destroyed in the way he has his, would at least have done what in my opinion he should have done in the movie. End up with the corrupt system that rules us all. I did not like Jamie's character throughout (not in the interpretative sense) he shows no remorse for his wrongs, in fact he stands tough for them in front of those for whom he cares and finally die for them. Rather unpleasantly, like half way through the film, i already knew that an American made Hollywood movie would tragically (for the story) let down a unique chance to set this production apart from the mainstream false morale endings that seem to plague the industry nowadays. Maybe its unsafe to display what would have been a fair ending to this story to a part of the American public, as they may try to bring it in to practise. I don't know. Certainly in Europe things probably would have ended in a different way, although we are twisted here too :). Coming to terms with whats fair i'd say that apart from saying the ending is appalling, there are some very loose threads. First, someone as smart as Clyde and having ten years to prepare, wouldn't have let anything left to tie up after he was imprisoned. Second, even in the worse movies i've seen involving bombs, the villain always has some device prepared in case anyone tries to move or deactivate the artifact, providing it to go off.
Left to your own judgement remains to say if both characters get the ending they deserve. which in my opinion they don't.