CONTAINS SPOILERS
I could not believe the comments I read here that this movie was "boring" or "slow" or "depressing", etc. But it's the same with many of the excellent movies I look up here; unfortunately these people writing reviews have not understood the movie. Why write a review only to say "I don't understand it. Therefore don't waste your time seeing it". These people are completely uninformed and apparently unable to absorb what they see, having never read or seen tragedy (or good filmmaking).
There are bad movies and stupid, pointless movies - oh, such as the teen genre - all of it - which has destroyed young peoples' ability to know good story telling by focusing on taboos and cheap laughs or gratuitous violence - but this is not one of those movies. Why is it considered a failure then? Because you have to watch it and pay attention to the story unfolding. Those who wrote that there was no story, I suppose they went out to buy popcorn and missed some key scenes. The whole story is there and it is clear. It is an ugly story, child murder, but the focus is on the retired cop, Jack Nicholson, who is determined to find the killer. It is good versus evil, the oldest plot in the world, one which is never boring. There is evil in the world; there are people who do evil and then people who try to find justice.
First of all anything Jack Nicholson is in is worth your while as he is one of the greatest actors on the screen. He becomes the character. So those comments about what a stupid movie this is are way off base; even if it was pure trash, he would have made it worth while. But the movie is clearly not trash. I would totally compare it to The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster, in mood. But in this case the character is not living in his own dream world - he is right and everyone else is wrong - it is about bureaucracies and assumptions - which we are all faced with sometimes - knowing you are right but the authorities are too blind and dimwitted to admit it. A man who knows he is right and goes down to defeat and yet good still triumphs in spite of the personal tragedy to him. This is the classic storyline of all time and therefore quite like Hitchcock, but why was this movie rejected? I absolutely cringe when true trash becomes big box office and gems like this are brushed aside.
And for all those who didn't understand what was happening, the writer from Germany gave the entire explanation in his post. I could not believe someone could see the movie and not be mesmerized by the horror of the story unfolding. This man dedicated himself to finding the killer, who clearly existed, but no one else believed him. We the audience are shown that he is right, but the movie does not show the killer until the end, and we are left knowing that the retired cop was right and everyone else was wrong, his life is destroyed, and yet it doesn't change that justice was indeed done even if it was by the Grim Reaper and even if no one else knew.
This is chilling and this is important. I really wish ignorant viewers would not bother posting "I don't understand this movie". Next time why not watch it again before jumping on line and typing in some drivel - or read several other reviews and make an attempt to pay more attention when watching cinema.
I could not believe the comments I read here that this movie was "boring" or "slow" or "depressing", etc. But it's the same with many of the excellent movies I look up here; unfortunately these people writing reviews have not understood the movie. Why write a review only to say "I don't understand it. Therefore don't waste your time seeing it". These people are completely uninformed and apparently unable to absorb what they see, having never read or seen tragedy (or good filmmaking).
There are bad movies and stupid, pointless movies - oh, such as the teen genre - all of it - which has destroyed young peoples' ability to know good story telling by focusing on taboos and cheap laughs or gratuitous violence - but this is not one of those movies. Why is it considered a failure then? Because you have to watch it and pay attention to the story unfolding. Those who wrote that there was no story, I suppose they went out to buy popcorn and missed some key scenes. The whole story is there and it is clear. It is an ugly story, child murder, but the focus is on the retired cop, Jack Nicholson, who is determined to find the killer. It is good versus evil, the oldest plot in the world, one which is never boring. There is evil in the world; there are people who do evil and then people who try to find justice.
First of all anything Jack Nicholson is in is worth your while as he is one of the greatest actors on the screen. He becomes the character. So those comments about what a stupid movie this is are way off base; even if it was pure trash, he would have made it worth while. But the movie is clearly not trash. I would totally compare it to The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster, in mood. But in this case the character is not living in his own dream world - he is right and everyone else is wrong - it is about bureaucracies and assumptions - which we are all faced with sometimes - knowing you are right but the authorities are too blind and dimwitted to admit it. A man who knows he is right and goes down to defeat and yet good still triumphs in spite of the personal tragedy to him. This is the classic storyline of all time and therefore quite like Hitchcock, but why was this movie rejected? I absolutely cringe when true trash becomes big box office and gems like this are brushed aside.
And for all those who didn't understand what was happening, the writer from Germany gave the entire explanation in his post. I could not believe someone could see the movie and not be mesmerized by the horror of the story unfolding. This man dedicated himself to finding the killer, who clearly existed, but no one else believed him. We the audience are shown that he is right, but the movie does not show the killer until the end, and we are left knowing that the retired cop was right and everyone else was wrong, his life is destroyed, and yet it doesn't change that justice was indeed done even if it was by the Grim Reaper and even if no one else knew.
This is chilling and this is important. I really wish ignorant viewers would not bother posting "I don't understand this movie". Next time why not watch it again before jumping on line and typing in some drivel - or read several other reviews and make an attempt to pay more attention when watching cinema.