******NOTE: Just as a forewarning, this MAY have a spoiler in it, but I'm trying to be as vague as possible.
I saw this movie in a classroom setting, where we watch the film, digest, and discuss a week later. The class had mixed feelings about it...more disliking it than liking it. I understand that David Mamet is a very talented man, and he does a good job of bringing across the central theme of the movie, from beginning to end. The characters were very nuanced individuals and very entertaining ... confusingly engrossing, if you will. Chiwetel Ejiofor turns in a great performance, and Mamet captures intensity on the screen very, very well.
However, the movie has a very pivotal turning point towards the end. Mamet does a great job of winding a story seamlessly into a huge culmination of tension towards the end, and at the conclusion..I was stunned. I was laughing, almost in tears, at how *bad* the ending was.
Maybe I don't get the genre, maybe I don't understand some of the context that was unspoken throughout the film...but the ending was a very disappointing crown to what could have been an amazing film.
I saw this movie in a classroom setting, where we watch the film, digest, and discuss a week later. The class had mixed feelings about it...more disliking it than liking it. I understand that David Mamet is a very talented man, and he does a good job of bringing across the central theme of the movie, from beginning to end. The characters were very nuanced individuals and very entertaining ... confusingly engrossing, if you will. Chiwetel Ejiofor turns in a great performance, and Mamet captures intensity on the screen very, very well.
However, the movie has a very pivotal turning point towards the end. Mamet does a great job of winding a story seamlessly into a huge culmination of tension towards the end, and at the conclusion..I was stunned. I was laughing, almost in tears, at how *bad* the ending was.
Maybe I don't get the genre, maybe I don't understand some of the context that was unspoken throughout the film...but the ending was a very disappointing crown to what could have been an amazing film.