(minor spoilers, but they're mostly about theme.)
Tone, tone, tone. That's the problem with "Swimming With Sharks." A black comedy about revenge? That's what the box seems to indicate. A drama about losing one's soul in the Hollywood machinery? That's what the ending seems to say. In this case, doing both just doesn't work, not for me, anyway. The movie cruises along fine as a dark comedy in which the "boss from Hell" (Kevin Spacey) yells just one too many times at the young assistant (Frank Whaley) who happens to let loose his inner psycho. Then suddenly, there's this dramatic turn that comes out of nowhere, and dousing paper cuts with lemon juice and tabasco (don't worry, you'll understand) doesn't seem so much fun anymore. Sometime around this point I began to feel sorry for Kevin Spacey's character, which I don't think was the director's intention. And the ending is a complete mess. I don't buy it, and from having read many of the other comments, I'm not alone.
Tone, tone, tone. That's the problem with "Swimming With Sharks." A black comedy about revenge? That's what the box seems to indicate. A drama about losing one's soul in the Hollywood machinery? That's what the ending seems to say. In this case, doing both just doesn't work, not for me, anyway. The movie cruises along fine as a dark comedy in which the "boss from Hell" (Kevin Spacey) yells just one too many times at the young assistant (Frank Whaley) who happens to let loose his inner psycho. Then suddenly, there's this dramatic turn that comes out of nowhere, and dousing paper cuts with lemon juice and tabasco (don't worry, you'll understand) doesn't seem so much fun anymore. Sometime around this point I began to feel sorry for Kevin Spacey's character, which I don't think was the director's intention. And the ending is a complete mess. I don't buy it, and from having read many of the other comments, I'm not alone.