I was rather enjoying this movie as I was watching it, but I found myself dissatisfied with the ending, and the more I think about the film, the more flawed it seems to be. My main complaints are plot holes and character inconsistencies.
o Laura is portrayed as a quite intelligent woman. So what does she see in Shelby? Everybody else has figured out this guy is a shallow, lying loser. How does she not see through him? Why hasn't the aunt long since opened her eyes? We know that the aunt sees right through him, and what's more she wants him for herself.
o For that matter, what does she see in Waldo? She hates his cold, arrogant personality at the start, and he does little to hide it the rest of the way. You'd think, gratitude or not, he would have rubbed her the wrong way much, much sooner.
o What on EARTH was Shelby doing fooling around with the model in the first place? He was clearly dabbling with the aunt for the money, OK. He had a sweetheart deal with her, so why was he sacrificing it to marry Laura? The only reasonable answer is that he actually really did love Laura. OK. So what *possible* reason does he have for risking *both* of them to trifle with this poor, unimportant (and not even that great looking) model?
o Explain to me again why on earth he took the model to *Laura's* apartment? And dressed her up in Laura's negligee? And why the model went along with this? This is crucial to the plot yet barely touched on.
o MOST DAMNING: Why, why, why would Waldo go kill Laura (the first time) that Friday night, *when he was on the cusp of victory*??? He already knew that she was going to take the weekend to decide if she was going to break off the engagement to Shelby, and it sure seemed likely that she was going to. All evidence was that he was succeeding in breaking up that marriage, so the "If I can't have her, nobody will!" motive makes NO SENSE!!!
Aside from these plot holes and character inconsistencies, I had three other complaints.
First off, the best moment of the film was completely marred for me by bad film making. That is the moment when Laura comes back and we find out she's still alive. The way the scene was shot, I was *absolutely sure* that this was a dream sequence, and not really happening. It took me quite a while to readjust my thinking and go along with it all being real. And I was still half-expecting it to turn out to all have been a dream, up to the end of the movie. Turns out, I was right. From what I've read, there originally *was* supposed to be an it-was-all-a-dream ending, that was scrapped. Which is fine, the movie is better if she really were still alive and all. But that scene should've been re-shot without the detective falling asleep like that. As it stands, it's just clumsy and confusing.
And then there's Laura herself. She's certainly beautiful. But the character just didn't come off to me as being this amazingly magnificent woman. It's hard to buy why everyone is so obsessed over her. She seems pretty ordinary, frankly. I guess the problem was that she failed to make *me* fall in love with her, and so it didn't resonate with me when everybody else did. I agree with what someone else said, that she worked better as a painting than a character.
Finally, I found the ending disappointing. At the moment that the detective announces he's about to make an arrest, we had a pretty nicely tangled web, with some reasons to suspect every character, yet also reasons to doubt. I actually paused the movie at that point to consider the possibilities. I imagined various combinations of possible conspiracies and alliances between various characters, less obvious motives, surprises. I was hoping for and expecting something much more clever and interesting than just that old-sourpuss did it.
So there you have it. My strongest emotion is disappointment. And the usual bewilderment at the people who gush over this movie. It's a shame, because, handled better, this really could have been an excellent film.
o Laura is portrayed as a quite intelligent woman. So what does she see in Shelby? Everybody else has figured out this guy is a shallow, lying loser. How does she not see through him? Why hasn't the aunt long since opened her eyes? We know that the aunt sees right through him, and what's more she wants him for herself.
o For that matter, what does she see in Waldo? She hates his cold, arrogant personality at the start, and he does little to hide it the rest of the way. You'd think, gratitude or not, he would have rubbed her the wrong way much, much sooner.
o What on EARTH was Shelby doing fooling around with the model in the first place? He was clearly dabbling with the aunt for the money, OK. He had a sweetheart deal with her, so why was he sacrificing it to marry Laura? The only reasonable answer is that he actually really did love Laura. OK. So what *possible* reason does he have for risking *both* of them to trifle with this poor, unimportant (and not even that great looking) model?
o Explain to me again why on earth he took the model to *Laura's* apartment? And dressed her up in Laura's negligee? And why the model went along with this? This is crucial to the plot yet barely touched on.
o MOST DAMNING: Why, why, why would Waldo go kill Laura (the first time) that Friday night, *when he was on the cusp of victory*??? He already knew that she was going to take the weekend to decide if she was going to break off the engagement to Shelby, and it sure seemed likely that she was going to. All evidence was that he was succeeding in breaking up that marriage, so the "If I can't have her, nobody will!" motive makes NO SENSE!!!
Aside from these plot holes and character inconsistencies, I had three other complaints.
First off, the best moment of the film was completely marred for me by bad film making. That is the moment when Laura comes back and we find out she's still alive. The way the scene was shot, I was *absolutely sure* that this was a dream sequence, and not really happening. It took me quite a while to readjust my thinking and go along with it all being real. And I was still half-expecting it to turn out to all have been a dream, up to the end of the movie. Turns out, I was right. From what I've read, there originally *was* supposed to be an it-was-all-a-dream ending, that was scrapped. Which is fine, the movie is better if she really were still alive and all. But that scene should've been re-shot without the detective falling asleep like that. As it stands, it's just clumsy and confusing.
And then there's Laura herself. She's certainly beautiful. But the character just didn't come off to me as being this amazingly magnificent woman. It's hard to buy why everyone is so obsessed over her. She seems pretty ordinary, frankly. I guess the problem was that she failed to make *me* fall in love with her, and so it didn't resonate with me when everybody else did. I agree with what someone else said, that she worked better as a painting than a character.
Finally, I found the ending disappointing. At the moment that the detective announces he's about to make an arrest, we had a pretty nicely tangled web, with some reasons to suspect every character, yet also reasons to doubt. I actually paused the movie at that point to consider the possibilities. I imagined various combinations of possible conspiracies and alliances between various characters, less obvious motives, surprises. I was hoping for and expecting something much more clever and interesting than just that old-sourpuss did it.
So there you have it. My strongest emotion is disappointment. And the usual bewilderment at the people who gush over this movie. It's a shame, because, handled better, this really could have been an excellent film.