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...that I mostly agree with him. For once. Of course the big difference between me and him is that when I say I like a movie that he thinks sucks, he claims it continues to suck while refusing to see it, while when he says he likes a movie that I think sucks, I got out and see it to get some insight into my enemy. And now and then I'm presently surprised.
The ending was certainly unexpected. And unlike some of the other guys in this thread who claim to like the ending of the movie but thought the rest of it was crap, I actually found myself much more interested in the plot and characters than I ever thought I would. Actually they pretty much had me from the beginning-- the first few minutes were quite intense. Unfortunately, just like a James Bond movie or a Simpsons episode, it had little to do with the rest of the movie. And there was way too much reliance on coincidence and Faraday unwittingly following the plans of the "Liberty" society -- jambie's criticism on this aspect is very true. But for some reason I didn't care quite as much as I should have. The way the writer nearly seamlessly and flawlessly turned the Scobees situation around on Faraday at the end just about made up for that. I admit, too, that the film had me on the edge of my seat throughout much of it without so much as a car chase or explosion until the last 10 minutes. jambie's criticism of the acting of the graduate student was hardly fair, though -- just because a character is annoying doesn't mean the actor did bad. Some characters were meant to be annoying and this was one of them. I thought she did quite well. So, yeah, I mostly agree with Brad and Filmgeek that this was one of the best movies I've seen this year.
HOWEVER...
I have to wonder about Brad's own claim that "This is the best movie of the summer" because it appears he's basing his assessment mostly on the ENDING... not unlike a whole lot of "Sixth Sense" fans. I don't think that's a very good idea. I already stated I liked much more than just the ending of "AR." But most of Brad's critique centers around the fact that this movie was heading toward a "routine resolution"... that it was "suckerpunched" us by being like much every other movie until the end. Should you really be ranking a movie as # 1 mostly based on the fact that it had an unconventional ending for modern times? Technically "Titanic" had a non-happy ending (ship sinks, main character dies, romance goes with it) but somehow I never pictured you as being a "Titanic" fan (although I've actually never seen a post by you on the movie so I'm just speculating based on everything else I know about you). I've seen quite a number of movies with mindblowing endings that I didn't give too much of a damn about because the rest of the movie was mediocre or inferior (like, say, "Sixth Sense"). Filmgeek drags up my greatest example "The Usual Suspects" -- the rest of the movie is so good that I could watch it a thousand times despite knowing who Keyser Soze is.
Perhaps you (Brad) did thoroughly enjoy the rest of the movie, but because you centered your arguments around the ending, I can't be so sure. You did mention a couple other films that you thought had unconventional endings but weren't all that interesting otherwise. So maybe I'm just speculating too much.
In any case, I do thank you for encouraging me (indirectly) to see "Arlington Road" -- it will probably be in my top 10 list for the year.
C. F. L.
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