The hand thing was actually one of the stupidest things in the movie, and that's a pretty high bar.
Why would the guy tell his wife, "I think the guy is military" or "he does this thing with his hands?" Why wouldn't he just say, "It was Ron Chapman"? They were in an elite unit of 7 people, who must have served together for at least several months, and he doesn't know his name????
Even more stupid was how they caught him. The guy has been on the run for 12 years, and he lets the cops take his fingerprints???? He wouldn't have let the cops near the place. He would have told his wife it was neighborhood kids, and he recognized them, and he'd talk to their parents. No need to get the cops involved and ruin their lives, right? And if she insisted, he'd say OK, I'll have them come tomorrow while you're at work, and then lie to her and say they came. "Honey, you're so busy at the firm, let me follow up with the police and see if they've found anything."
And before you say she might have had a friend on the force do it without his knowledge, no, not possible. Because when they arrested him, they told her they matched his prints to the AWOL Chapman. The only way they could know they were his prints was to take his prints, which of course they always do so they can eliminate the family. If he didn't give them his prints, and they found a murderer's prints at the scene, they would assume that the murderer was one of the burglars, not the husband.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Not slowing down when your windshield is covered with oil is only the third stupidest thing in the movie.
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cleverfox
8 years ago
I generally agree with your comments. But, why would the police do fingerprints if nothing was taken? We've had a few windows get broken over the years by people trying to get in or just simple low grade vandals. Usually the officer took our statement but no one ever even suggested more intensive investigation. It was just to generate a police report for insurance purposes.
I agree the "hand thing" was handled (no pun intended) too aggressively. Claire knew Tom was ambidextrous and she also had witnessed his hand thing many times. And when Hernandez testified that Ron did this quite a bit in the village, Claire should have picked up on this.
As to the oil - you don't apply brakes when your tires lose traction with the road for any reason. You might tap them a few times but never brake hard. The correct way to get thru road surface issues is to take your foot off the accelerator and allow the car to slow naturally and ride over the impediment. Can't tell you how many hydro planing incidents as well as similar incidents driving over packed snow and ice patches I've avoided just by following this simple action.
And polygraphs aren't allowed in court because of their unreliability. It happens more than you might think that innocent people fail polygraphs due to stress, anxiety, etc. and they subsequently pass the test later.
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