A fine movie...with holes

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2005)

This film narrowly gets an 8 of 10. My main complaint about the movie and the reason for writing this is to point out the fundamental hole in the movie (here comes the spoilers). The whole point of Soze going after the guy on the ship, and thus the point of the film, is to protect his identity, "the one guy who could identify him". However, at the end of the movie, not only does one person know his identity but the police have a sketch and full description of him. He's much worse off at the end of the movie for all his efforts. Yet the closing remarks of "and like the devil he was gone" or something to that effect makes it sound like everything has gone as he had planned. It's true he may not be aware that the police have this information on him, maybe it was set up for a possible sequel where the police attempt to apprehend him. Trouble is this failing to cover up his identity takes away from him mystique of being this ultra-cool untouchable underworld figure, he's failed to accomplish his main aim.
Having said that the film has great performances from Kevin Spacey and Benicio Del Toro (who oddly isn't given credit on the cover of my DVD edition). The film lulls in only a few places and overall is enjoyable from start to finish.