Reviews

Another user wrote: "The 'twist' ending was the equivalent of

finding out that everything up until that point had been a dream."

Others wrote similar things. I don't agree. Keep in mind that Kint

testified before a grand jury, so anything that they could check had

to be true (e.g. the attack on the taxi cops, and Edie working on the

extradition case.) He couldn't lie too much and still have a

consistent story. So I believe that his story is supposed to be at

least 90% true. Kujan figured out that Kint was lying because he

saw the names that Kint read off the wall. Most of these, Kint just

used in anecdotes to build up his character. The only one that he

worked into the story was "Kobayashi." So that's one thing we can

be sure he lied about: the man who picks him up at the end is not

really named Kobayashi. We should know that anyway, because

he doesn't look Japanese at all. That's one of the few clues that

there's something wrong with Kint's story.

I've seen plenty of movies that deal with delusions, and I'm used to

the fact that generally they try to make it clear what's real and what

isn't. So I felt like this one played a dirty trick on me. I wonder if

anyone figured out that Charles wasn't real before Rosen said he

wasn't. In the beginning, everything about Charles is perfectly

plausible and consistent. The second time I watched, I looked

carefully for any hints that he wasn't real. The first thing I could find

was that he overheard Nash's remark about fluid exchange, even

though Nash spoke too quietly for anyone to overhear. By that time

Charles' reality was too well established.

I can understand Nash seeing and hearing Charles even though

Charles isn't there. I find it hard to understand that Nash could

see Charles turn off the record player, failing to notice that he had

really turned it off himself. I see this as deliberate deception of the

audience. (Notice that after Nash's hospitalization, there are no

more examples of the imaginary characters manipulating real

objects.)

Perhaps Nash's brilliance is reflected by the fact that in the early

stages, he could create a completely consistent and plausible

delusion. In contrast, after his hospitalization he claimed that

Charles had a cloaking device. This sort of tampering with the

laws of physics is what I expect from a delusional schizophrenic.

I give this one 8 out of 10, because it's a good original story, and made me laugh a lot. Just a few minor problems: I think they should have made it more plausible for Gracie to get into the top 10. Recall that they were going to fix the pageant, but the fix was canceled when the other agents left, so she had to get into the top 10 on her merits, and did so, even though up to that point in the pageant she had made a total ass of herself. After she made the top 10 her behavior improved greatly, and it was almost believable for her to be #2, but they could have made her improve sooner to make it more plausible.

BTW, people describe this as an ugly-duckling-becomes-a-swan story, but I didn't see that happen. Gracie does learn to walk like a woman, but her personality remains essentially the same.