I'd like to begin with saying that this film was very well-done. I'm not going to elaborate on that -- I'm no film expert, and anyway, that's what professional critics are for. What I really want to talk about is something else, something more about the film's overall narrative structure than about the cinematography or directing or acting.
The movie starts out looking like some kind of light satire, having a laugh or two about those womanizing executives or what-have-you. But the story soon begins to take on more dimensions -- romance appears, the satire begins get more serious, dramatic elements are introduced... These new aspects of the story absolutely make the movie what it is and give it the depth it needs to be fully satisfying. That the writers were able to bring all these pieces together while still bringing plenty of comedy to the mix is a true testament to their talent and craftsmanship.
But around the middle of the movie, I began worrying about where it was all heading. Basically, my concern was that the writers were going to sacrifice the integrity of the story for the sake of the audience. Baxter is such a sympathetic, likable character that I couldn't help but wanting things to turn out all right for him, and I suspect that many viewers would feel the same way. In a lesser movie, Fran would surely "fall in love" with Baxter by the end of the film, maybe as soon as when she is recovering from her suicide attempt. Baxter would then be inspired to stand up to his mean old boss, and... you get the picture. Yet aesthetically, that sort of ending would just feel too tidy and predictable for a story as broad as this one. So even though emotionally I wanted Baxter to get the girl, intellectually I began praying that he wouldn't.
So, as it turned out, the film ended somewhere in between. The ending to the film was well-handled, but still I found it a little too compact for my liking. If it had ended just one scene earlier, with Fran leaving Sheldrake at the New Year's Eve party, I would've been fine with it. But the last scene in Baxter's apartment felt unnecessary and forced, as though the writers just couldn't stand to end the story without some romantic payoff. This was probably intended to provide narrative closure, but ironically it left me less satisfied than a more ambiguous ending would have.
The movie starts out looking like some kind of light satire, having a laugh or two about those womanizing executives or what-have-you. But the story soon begins to take on more dimensions -- romance appears, the satire begins get more serious, dramatic elements are introduced... These new aspects of the story absolutely make the movie what it is and give it the depth it needs to be fully satisfying. That the writers were able to bring all these pieces together while still bringing plenty of comedy to the mix is a true testament to their talent and craftsmanship.
But around the middle of the movie, I began worrying about where it was all heading. Basically, my concern was that the writers were going to sacrifice the integrity of the story for the sake of the audience. Baxter is such a sympathetic, likable character that I couldn't help but wanting things to turn out all right for him, and I suspect that many viewers would feel the same way. In a lesser movie, Fran would surely "fall in love" with Baxter by the end of the film, maybe as soon as when she is recovering from her suicide attempt. Baxter would then be inspired to stand up to his mean old boss, and... you get the picture. Yet aesthetically, that sort of ending would just feel too tidy and predictable for a story as broad as this one. So even though emotionally I wanted Baxter to get the girl, intellectually I began praying that he wouldn't.
So, as it turned out, the film ended somewhere in between. The ending to the film was well-handled, but still I found it a little too compact for my liking. If it had ended just one scene earlier, with Fran leaving Sheldrake at the New Year's Eve party, I would've been fine with it. But the last scene in Baxter's apartment felt unnecessary and forced, as though the writers just couldn't stand to end the story without some romantic payoff. This was probably intended to provide narrative closure, but ironically it left me less satisfied than a more ambiguous ending would have.