A solid ride, but not the brilliant stuff I expected

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2004)

This movie is actually just a regular thriller: you expect to be thrilled, to have a suspenseful movie, full of twists and plots, and you get it. It's nothing more and nothing less. Yes, the plot and the way it's told (backwards) is clever, but hey, so was 'the butler did it' once. Face it: ALL plots in thrillers are clever in some way or another. That's no reason to call the movie brilliant. It takes more than that. A brilliant movie is a movie that tells you something about the world, about people, about yourself. This movie just tells you a nice story. It's well-made, well-acted, and well-thought-out. Although some stuff is really too hard to believe. But it doesn't matter as long as you're just expecting a solid ride, not a life-changing experience. By the way, there have been many movies and books which are told backwards. This movie is nothing new in this respect.
OT: For example, read the book 'Time's Arrow' by Martin Amis. It's a story about WWII told backwards. The good thing there is that it gives you new insights about history of events and of how people thought during the war.