Terribly underrated

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2003)

Anyone that says they didn't understand this movie, or needed hours of analysis to figure it out just aren't that smart. The last 15 minutes of the movie spells out the plot in minute detail. While I don't think it necessarily needed that level of explanation, the story itself is one of the best movie stories in recent history. It's also a movie that on subsequent viewings offers so many clues and hints as to what's REALLY going on, that you can't help but admire the superb craftsmanship.
(Spoilers) While I don't think Crowe could have done a much better job explaining it, my explantion, taking the final scene at face value: Everything up until the nightclub scene (with David in the white mask) is real. That night is the last night he ever really sees Sofia (and only, what, the third time ever). He is so depressed, lonely, and ravaged by headaches, he signs a contract with Life Extension (with the Living Dream option). Sometime later he commits suicide by taking some pills, and LE comes and takes his body and puts it in cryogenic suspension. They wipe out his memory of everything after the nightclub night, and start his living dream at that point. He uses his limited memory of Sofia to create the perfect woman and the perfect life. But, like any piece of software, the Living Dream v1.0 has a few glitches. Either due to that, or the power of David's own subconscious, his living dream goes haywire. Tech support from LE tries to intervene at several points, but David doesn't understand until the end. At the end, tech support tells him they can fix the glitches in his living dream and he can go on in his suspended state, without all the killing and prison and stuff. Or, he can be brought out of suspension (it's 150 years later, and they can fix his face and his headaches). He decides he wants to wake up and live in the real world. Simple!