People who pay attention to detail will have figured out fairly early that the two women don't exist, i.e. that all the events shown in the other apartment are merely John's hallucinations. Once I figured this out, which was about half-way through the movie (a little too early), the only question remained why he is hallucinating, and why this strange world is so violent and sex-obsessed. The answer is two-fold: 1) he is a schizophrenic with sado-sexual tendencies, and 2) he killed his ex-girlfriend and then her new beau. The delirium is a result of shock after committing the murders.
The biggest clue is in the first scene of the movie, when his ex tells John that she brought along her new boyfriend for protection. The second clue is the girls' over-the-top bizarre behavior. The clues eventually start multiplying at a greater speed, including the never-ending, enormous flat with strange corridors, and the totally unrealistic behavior of the ex's new boyfriend.
The conclusion is interesting and good. However, I have one major problem with the wrap-up: the identity of the two women remains unresolved. He's got a picture of Kim on his wall. Who is she? This should have been explained. The identity of the other woman, Anne, is even less clear. I dislike the idea that John's hallucinations have two very real people (the two people he had just murdered), a woman he knows but whose identity the viewer never finds out, and a woman he'd invented out of the blue. While this kind of hodge-podge of real/unreal characters isn't at all impossible (anything is possible in a schizo's mind), it does leave you with a sense of loose ends.
I would have preferred if the scene in which he sees Kim's photo was cut out of the movie. That would have made things neater: only the people he killed were a reality, whereas all the others are merely figments of his imagination. He does mention his sister at one point; is the writer implying that the violent fist-laden sexual fantasy was with her? Perusing through some of the other reviews here, I came across a "top reviewer" who actually admitted to being titillated/stimulated by the sexual violence – which only supports my claim that most film buffs are confused misfits. Many less favourable reviews compare "Naboer" to "The Lost Highway" or "The Spider". Lynch's TLH is a paper-tiger balloon filled with nothing; a piece of crap that hasn't an iota of logic or sense, with nothing tying into anything else. It's just a collection of mood pieces that are somehow supposed to convey a "story" or some pretentious point/message. As for "Spider", it was the beginning of Cronenberg's fall from grace; a dull, slow-moving drama that has very little going for it, and every movie he's made since has been awful. So even if "Naboer" borrowed a thing here and there, it is a much better movie than either of those.
The biggest clue is in the first scene of the movie, when his ex tells John that she brought along her new boyfriend for protection. The second clue is the girls' over-the-top bizarre behavior. The clues eventually start multiplying at a greater speed, including the never-ending, enormous flat with strange corridors, and the totally unrealistic behavior of the ex's new boyfriend.
The conclusion is interesting and good. However, I have one major problem with the wrap-up: the identity of the two women remains unresolved. He's got a picture of Kim on his wall. Who is she? This should have been explained. The identity of the other woman, Anne, is even less clear. I dislike the idea that John's hallucinations have two very real people (the two people he had just murdered), a woman he knows but whose identity the viewer never finds out, and a woman he'd invented out of the blue. While this kind of hodge-podge of real/unreal characters isn't at all impossible (anything is possible in a schizo's mind), it does leave you with a sense of loose ends.
I would have preferred if the scene in which he sees Kim's photo was cut out of the movie. That would have made things neater: only the people he killed were a reality, whereas all the others are merely figments of his imagination. He does mention his sister at one point; is the writer implying that the violent fist-laden sexual fantasy was with her? Perusing through some of the other reviews here, I came across a "top reviewer" who actually admitted to being titillated/stimulated by the sexual violence – which only supports my claim that most film buffs are confused misfits. Many less favourable reviews compare "Naboer" to "The Lost Highway" or "The Spider". Lynch's TLH is a paper-tiger balloon filled with nothing; a piece of crap that hasn't an iota of logic or sense, with nothing tying into anything else. It's just a collection of mood pieces that are somehow supposed to convey a "story" or some pretentious point/message. As for "Spider", it was the beginning of Cronenberg's fall from grace; a dull, slow-moving drama that has very little going for it, and every movie he's made since has been awful. So even if "Naboer" borrowed a thing here and there, it is a much better movie than either of those.