Difficult but worth a watch

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2008)

This film is certainly not for everyone. I personally feel it is a return to a root that they tried to explore with the Big Lebowski and the man who wasn't there. The point of it, to me at least, would seem to be a post-modern exploration of violence and greed. In an attempt to understand why the serial killer is violent we invariably ultimately fail. He is not like Hannibal Lectre he is not explained and ultimately this is the case for a lot of truly insane people out there. It is not that they have no motivation but that there motivation is not as easily explainable as certain directors would like us to think. That is why the money is irrelevant, it initiates the film but it is not the focal point. That is why no one ends up with the money because this film is simply not about telling a story.
When I say this film is not aiming to tell a story I do not mean that it is boring. The action sequences are thrilling and frequently terrifying, the acting is utterly gripping and the dialogue is quite literally genius.
The flaw of any review would be to talk about a film like the Shawshank Redemption within the same space as this. It would be much more fitting to consider the cinematographers other film the Assassination of Jesse James. That was a film where people did not sit down and, in a time honoured clichéd tradition, explain their intentions and the same happened here. It was a film where you could never truly grasp the intentions or the depths of character's dialogue and this film is much the same.
It may not be to everyone's taste that much I agree. If you want a film that focuses on the story rather than an intellectual exploration detached from the plot then avoid this at all costs. However, if you are a particular fan of more postmodern works then I would highly recommend this film if only for the dialogue alone.