expecting a lot more from Christopher Nolan

Rating: 5/10 (16 February 2007)

Maybe my expectations for the new Christopher Nolan film were too high, but after I saw it I was extremely disappointed. Of course a good movie doesn't need a plot full of surprising twists, but from the introduction of Fallon early on until the last shot I kept hoping 'please let there be something I am missing'. I was wrong. The first time I saw Fallon, I knew he was a double for 'Borden'. You could easily see it was Bale with a hat, fake nose and hair...Also Sarah's 'today you (don't) love me's made it all too clear. By never showing Fallon's face, or sometimes just plain ignoring him, Nolan made me too curious about him. And it annoyed me. Does Nolan think his post-6th Sense-Fight Club-audience is stupid?
And what about that last shot? Was that supposed to shock us? It was immediately obvious when Borden tried to help Angiers from drowning, Angiers was drowning all his 'copies'. Even before that he gave us a lot (too much) of clues (the birds, hats, cats, etc.). It was almost as if he was afraid we wouldn't get it, almost the opposite of Memento.
A lot of reviews talk about how good the story was told. Yeah that's right, the story was pre-chewed, pre-microwave-over-cooked and spoon-fed to me. If you wanna see a well made film that doesn't insult it's audience intelligence watch Guy Ritchie's very underrated Revolver...