The Best Movie Ever!

Rating: 6/10 (20 August 2011)

This movie is a mixed bag entirely. That's the truth, it's horribly over-rated but seems to revel in the fact that everything it does should work but somehow it just doesn't. The problem lies in that the movie has two sections, the majority of the story then the onslaught of twists at the end and one ruins the other effectively.
The characters are the strongest point with them all succeeding in creating a tense atmosphere of rivalry and obsession but the stand out is Christian Bale. He is clearly the best actor here coming across as the only 100% legitimate character, he truly becomes his character but seems to have little screen time compared to Hugh Jackman.
The twists at the end are a mixed bag. There is some great twists early on featuring the notebook and other things but the number of twists at the end overwhelm the story. The big twist around Bale's character is interesting and worthy of Nolan's Memento but the rest are rather boring. The other big twist is mixed. It was a plot point that could have worked without requiring an explanation as the film's tone up to this point could have worked with a vague explanation - one that doesn't tell you the exact truth but leaves you slightly puzzled and satisfied (as in Memento) but instead the film opts to give us a drastic change of tone to ruin this ambiguity. This was a bad move by Nolan as the entire plot changes once you know this and means that this renders the rest of the film pointless in its strange feel and tone. A science-fiction twist in an historical / character film is not a good idea.
The rest of the characters are also a mixed bag. Hugh Jackman's character is basically a far less interesting version of Bale's character and his performance is not much to talk about. Michael Caine knows how to act and shows it here, he does a fine job and Scarlett Johansson doesn't really impress. Her story arc is interesting but does little to make her short screen time interesting.
The twists are a problem. End of story. The twists are good, the rest of the film is good but the tonal change just doesn't gel together. The moment when the character of the Lord is revealed was the best twist by far and here is why: it is simple. In that one moment everything looked good, the vagueness was present, you understand the hopelessness of one character and the success of another and yet the shot lasted about 5 seconds. I would have loved it if the film had ended there, 10/10, but no it decides to explain this twist in so much detail it loses sight of what made the first half of the film amazing.
Personally I do however think it is a great movie.
Well it was a great movie up until the ending.
The ending actually wasn't bad it just made the rest of the part irrelevant.
The film is over-rated but it is good.
And this review is effectively how the movie works. It tells you everything out of order, jumbles it up, seems a bit vague and then can't make up its mind how to end itself and lies about what you saw at the beginning. It isn't the best movie ever ... just very over-rated.
Or is it? Or was that a lie? Or ...