This movie fits into my category of a movie that I felt compelled to continue watching but ultimately ended up being disappointing. That does not mean I will withhold a recommendation from the film, however.
I did not read very much about "The Lodger" before watching it. I was hoping that this would add an air of suspense to my viewing. It did, but it is possible it may have also led me to criticize it more harshly than I would have if I had known more about the plot.
My first problem with the movie came very early on. Detective Manning gets a letter from evidence which is very obviously a facsimile of the "Dear Boss" letter from the Jack the Ripper investigations. This letter was the first of three letters that have been studied along with the Ripper case. "Dear Boss" was the first letter that mentioned the name "Jack the Ripper" and since it mentioned he would clip the next victim's ear and the next victim was found missing an earlobe, it was considered evidence. I am a bit of a Ripperologist, but I am sure that you do not have to be such to recognize this letter. In this movie, however, two more murders have to take place before Jack the Ripper is even mentioned.
This movie is way too packed with red herrings. It leads you down a path believing that a lady in the movie is psychotic and imagining that she has a lodger living with her who may be committing the murders. It introduces a tense family situation with Molina's character that adds suspicion. There is a whole situation about the death penalty that is meant to lead you to believe the murders were meant to cause the wrong man to be executed to prohibit the death penalty. There are plenty more I am not going to mention.
What I enjoyed most is that this movie was paced perfectly. Even though there were several things that I did not like, I kept watching it because I was drawn in and I wanted the movie to reveal to me what was really going on. Many times when I get aggravated with a movie, I will just look up spoilers to save me the time of watching the whole thing. I did not want to do that with this movie though.
However, after the movie ended, I wished that I had looked up the spoilers. The ending made very little sense. The police had a psychological profile that obviously had been written up by someone who did not even have their associates of arts in psychology. All of the things in the movie that were supposed to arouse suspicion were pointless, and the ending became simply as mundane as possible.
In writing suspense movies, there are two plot lines that have been overused in recent years and should be abandoned. The first plot line is that the entire thing was set up by one of the main characters who has a dissociative identity. It worked once or twice, but shouldn't be used anymore. The second plot is the one in which you have an obvious scenario that the viewer is pulled away from for a much more bizarre plot. Once the viewer gets involved in the alternate possibilities, at the end of the movie it is revealed that the obvious scenario was real and everything else was there simply so you wouldn't suspect it. It's a disease of writers thinking they are utilizing Occam's Razor to make a story simple, but more fascinating. It doesn't work and it insults the viewer and wastes the viewer's time. T
This movie is of the second plot line and for this reason I recommend that you skip it and watch something else.
I did not read very much about "The Lodger" before watching it. I was hoping that this would add an air of suspense to my viewing. It did, but it is possible it may have also led me to criticize it more harshly than I would have if I had known more about the plot.
My first problem with the movie came very early on. Detective Manning gets a letter from evidence which is very obviously a facsimile of the "Dear Boss" letter from the Jack the Ripper investigations. This letter was the first of three letters that have been studied along with the Ripper case. "Dear Boss" was the first letter that mentioned the name "Jack the Ripper" and since it mentioned he would clip the next victim's ear and the next victim was found missing an earlobe, it was considered evidence. I am a bit of a Ripperologist, but I am sure that you do not have to be such to recognize this letter. In this movie, however, two more murders have to take place before Jack the Ripper is even mentioned.
This movie is way too packed with red herrings. It leads you down a path believing that a lady in the movie is psychotic and imagining that she has a lodger living with her who may be committing the murders. It introduces a tense family situation with Molina's character that adds suspicion. There is a whole situation about the death penalty that is meant to lead you to believe the murders were meant to cause the wrong man to be executed to prohibit the death penalty. There are plenty more I am not going to mention.
What I enjoyed most is that this movie was paced perfectly. Even though there were several things that I did not like, I kept watching it because I was drawn in and I wanted the movie to reveal to me what was really going on. Many times when I get aggravated with a movie, I will just look up spoilers to save me the time of watching the whole thing. I did not want to do that with this movie though.
However, after the movie ended, I wished that I had looked up the spoilers. The ending made very little sense. The police had a psychological profile that obviously had been written up by someone who did not even have their associates of arts in psychology. All of the things in the movie that were supposed to arouse suspicion were pointless, and the ending became simply as mundane as possible.
In writing suspense movies, there are two plot lines that have been overused in recent years and should be abandoned. The first plot line is that the entire thing was set up by one of the main characters who has a dissociative identity. It worked once or twice, but shouldn't be used anymore. The second plot is the one in which you have an obvious scenario that the viewer is pulled away from for a much more bizarre plot. Once the viewer gets involved in the alternate possibilities, at the end of the movie it is revealed that the obvious scenario was real and everything else was there simply so you wouldn't suspect it. It's a disease of writers thinking they are utilizing Occam's Razor to make a story simple, but more fascinating. It doesn't work and it insults the viewer and wastes the viewer's time. T
This movie is of the second plot line and for this reason I recommend that you skip it and watch something else.