be warned

Rating: 6/10 (24 March 2011)

This was going to be one of my favorite movies ever, right up until the unbelievably lame cop- out ending. My date and I were both dumped into a depression, so it's not just me. Back and forth the movie gives and takes away hope, then gives it back, and then you get to the end...and whiff. Somebody decided it would be too predictable to end on a happy note, so they got all artsy and clever and...predictable. I really wanted to punch the filmmaker in the face at that point. There is an implied contract if you take on someone's attention and emotions for this long a period of time (only 80 minutes? god it seemed like so much more than that by that point), and if you aren't going to play the game out until the end, then I think that's very rude and self- indulgent. It's like when Forrest Gump steps up to the microphone, and everybody is waiting to hear The Big Punchline, then the mic howls with feedback instead, and everybody cheers, and we get a fake airball instead of something worth the effort of the journey.
All that said, right up until that stupid stupid ending, what an incredibly charming movie, so full of absurd details and love for textures and the minutae of neuroses. What a waste that it ended on such a pathetic non-idea.