Great, but could have been better

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2004)

David Fincher is almost always reliable to deliver some good thrills. Se7en is probably the best thriller I've ever seen, Panic Room is pretty exciting and I've heard a lot of good things about Fight Club. However, this one stands out, at least from Panic Room and Se7en, since pretty much nothing in this movie is what it seems. It keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the action scenes, and it keeps you wondering, up until the very last minute, what the hell is going on. Then you find out. I'm not saying the ending was downright bad, but it could definitely have used some improvement. It could have been worse, but it could also have been so much better. The end just seems to ruin a lot of the buildup of the rest of the film. Anyway, the plot is very good, a man who has everything, but isn't completely satisfied with his life, gets a chance to have some "fun". He takes it, and his life is changed forever. The acting is all good. The characters are well-written and credible. Actually, everything but the ending is top notch. The ending is the one reason that this movie doesn't get, at least, a 9. It just ruins so much of the movie, especially because the moment the definite end of the movie is reached, it feels empty. Up until that moment, you feel like you were watching a work of art, and then just before it ends in the same way that the rest of it has been, it cuts to some lame excuse for everything that happened in the movie up to that point, rather than a good explanation. I really wish they had made the ending better. Overall, a pretty good thriller, that could have been a masterpiece. I recommend this to fans of Fincher's other work, and fans of psychological thrillers altogether. 8/10