To all those who say this movie lies...

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2006)

A lot of people claim that this movie lies, and that this is a bad thing. Yes, there is a lie in this movie - a wonderfully, skillfully crafted lie. It is so wonderfully and skillfully crafted that I don't know a single person who can honestly say that they picked it until it slapped them in the face at the very end of the film.
ALL movies (well, other than documentaries) lie. This is the nature of fiction. The skill in this movie is that the most important lie in the movie is hidden from the viewer in an amazingly simple yet effective fashion. It's done SO well in fact that many people seem to feel "cheated" by the movie.
To these people, I say that you have missed the point of this movie entirely.
The film-makers use the audience's expectations against them - they present a work of fiction so convoluted that we sit there and eat it up, they build up Spacey's unlikeable character so well that you can't help but like him, or at least feel a little sorry for him. And then the twist hits, and it leaves you thinking "Wow - I've just had the wool pulled over my eyes for 100 minutes so well that I didn't even see it." This is the skill for which the screenplay won an Oscar, and the skill in playing his dual role for which Kevin Spacey won his Oscar for this movie. I truly believe that this movie deserved more Oscars, but since when does every movie get every Oscar it deserves? :)