what the fuck?

someone please go out and see this so i have someone to talk to about this please thanks.

I love Ryan Gosling so I'll probably watch it. Did you like it?

i'm still assimilating it i guess.

i don't know whether i loved it...or whether i'm pissed off by it.

definitely entertaining, interesting, etc.

I think I might go watch it tomorrow afternoon.

Okay saw it yesterday- let's discuss.

I loved the movie except the fact it left me saying "What the fuck!" at the end because it was confusing as hell. Ryan Gosling played his role well, although I felt they should've elaborated more on his character... and imo, it was another great performance by Ewan McGregor & Naomi Watts. The cinematography was amazing.

I'll go more into what I thought the movie meant later.

Haven't seen this movie, but I think Ewan McGregor has been getting a free pass from fans and critics b/c of Trainspotting.

I like Ryan Gosling and Naomi Watts as actors.

Rockin' the Kenneth Branagh for the next generation.

Dunno if this will help, but it's a passage from the Ebert review of the film :

When the movie is over, and we know all that is to be known, it deserves some thought. The ending is an explanation, but not a solution. For a solution we have to think back through the whole film, and now the visual style becomes a guide. It is an illustration of the way the materials of life can be shaped for the purposes of the moment.

so i've had time to think about it, and i guess i loved the movie until the ending. and then after the ending, i hated it because it pretty much made the whole part leading up to the ending pointless. i don't know. i do know i want to see it again.

ryan gosling was great. ewan mcgregor was good, but his "american" accent really really bugged me.

I actually understand it now that I had time to think about it. I want to watch it again though so I can put it all together. I love when movies fuck with my head like that.

but what is there to understand really? maybe i'm being too simplistic or i'm just missing something huge...but doesn't the ending just kinda nullify the entire first part of the film? i mean, i'm pretty sure i get it and all...but it just felt like a movie that didn't know how to end and they took an easy way out.

So ending aside, do you recommend this? Looks pretty neat.

yeah, i recommend it. even though i hated it. because of the ending and stuff.

seriously though, it's a pretty good movie that i definitely want to see again.

it depends on how you interpret the movie. i can see why one would think the ending takes an easy way out... but i don't think so.


*SPOILER: DO NOT READ BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE: SPOILER*

the way i saw it was that it was henry's search for divinity in his last few moments of his life... he doesn't want to die, but rather wants to escape from his death. so he has this "dream" right before he dies in the car accident. the whole "purpose" is whether or not he chooses to continue on or if he just gives up... hence, searching for divinity. his suicidal behavior is his "survivor's guilt" from killing his parents & athena. the reason why he chooses to kill himself at saturday, midnight, is to decide whether or not live will be worth living without his family & gf.

so the blindman in the movie? it can be symbolic of jesus, and the climax of the struggle for divinity was shown through the scene of healing the blindman. there henry witnesses the biggest spiritual healing but he rejects the idea.. hence still ends up killing himself... or in reality, just giving up at the end when sam & lila are trying to help him hang on. the part where the blindman walks under the bridge and the light turns off symbolizes that henry no longer has any hope for salvation.

so if you look at it that way, the meaning of the movie could be one's search for divinity in the last few moments of life... dealing with the struggle of reality vs. distorted reality, or hope vs. giving up. so i don't think that the ending really is an easy way out... it was just the way henry choose his path.

i don't know, that's looking at it from a deeper point of view (in my opinion of what i thought it meant).

wow...thanks for that dri. i hadn't thought about some of the points you bring up...and they make a lot of sense.

i guess the problem i have with it is why isn't the whole "dream" told from henry's point of view? there are too many scenes where henry isn't even involved at all...how would he be dreaming these? it didn't connect with me that way as the "dream" was more of a "sam story" and not a "henry story".

see, that's what fucked with me at first... i thought it was from sam's point of view and the problem i had with the movie was that i felt they needed to elaborate more on henry's character. but what i'm thinking is that it was told through sam because henry developed this character to help him cope with the guilt. hence, sam & lila's relationship, the same engagement ring, and at that one scene where lila calls sam "henry." therefore, sam IS henry in the dream. sam was his will to live, lila was his hope, and henry was the guilt. does that make sense?

the reason why i love this movie so much is because it allows you to draw your own conclusion... which unfortunately why some people don't like it.

you just blew my mind.

haha...no seriously, that is awesome and really is starting to make sense to me now. i really really want to go see this again now.

and i really don't hate the movie, i probably was just upset that it was challenging me (which in reality, i love when a movie does that).

what are your thoughts on what all the triplets and twins (all wearing the same clothes, carrying the same stuff) in the background were all about?

could be either:
a) clues to showing the viewer that this isn't real
b) or sam's perception of reality becoming distorted (since originally the story is told from his point of view, or so you think)
c) when someone is dying, you tend to see double/triple vision... so possibly a parallelism of henry dying and seeing double/triple of things while his life is "flashing before his eyes."


and trust me, i've been obsessed with this friken movie since i saw it... i want to see it again and will definitely buy it when it comes on dvd. i love when movies make me think like this.

Just an FYI for those of you talking about seeing it again or ever for the 1st time - go soon. The movie did really poorly in its 1st weekend - not unexpectedly, as the studio just kinda threw it away with very little marketing - but still. It'll be out of most theatres in a couple weeks, more than likely.

well thanks for the discussion dri...i've been dying to talk about it since i've seen it, and the only person i know that has seen it was my co-worker who went with me, and he just dismissed it with a "that fuckin' blew" and he didn't want to talk further about it.

from the commercials from this, i'm guessing that the characters are in purgatory or something.

no problem, i've been dying to talk about it too... i was trying to explaining this with my friend i saw it with and he just didn't understand what i was trying to say.

and yeah the marketing for this movie sucked. it's a shame.

What's really weird is that they don't list the stars in the print ads...I didn't even know who was in it until I saw the Ebert review. Ewen & Watts may not be mega-stars, but people know who they are, fer Chrissakes. It makes no sense to not include their names in the ads.

I guess the positive thing is that you guys won't have to wait long for the DVD.