MovieChat Forums > In ascolto (2006) Discussion > Terrible Film - (SPOILERS warning)

Terrible Film - (SPOILERS warning)

posted 18 years ago by CyanZ
2 replies | jump to latest

Maya Sansa is a babe. That was the movie's only saving grace. Not a fan of the movie. Here is my list of complaints and plot holes.

Why would James throw away his entire life on this girl? It made absolutely no sense. He had been working there for like 30 years or something. Also, how could NSA not know that he got on a plane to go to Italy until he was already there? Didn't anyone go, "hey, where's that guy who is ALWAYS here and was the only one who was AGAINST eliminating the girl?" These people seemed pretty clueless for being such elite spies. Also, how come Francesca was so quick to accept James' help? I would have continued to be suspicious. That raises another point: how come these guys didn't pick Francesca up before James' got to her: she had that cellphone for a while. Were they busy dealing with the Carabinieri or something? Also, it was completely unclear as to how James had deceived his friend Gianni. I didn't understand why he lied to him or what the lie was, it was just very unclear. Nor did I understand their argument at the end when James' shot Gianni in the arm. This is not to say that they did not have an argument, it was simply a poor execution of film and unclear for the viewer. Also, that other guy seemed to be attracted to Francesca and he never said a single word until the last 20 minutes of the movie. Was that supposed to be some kind of suggestive subplot, why even make the suggestion when it had no relevance to the movie?

I could probably list 10 or 20 other things about this movie that I did not like, but here is my main overarching complaint: there was also absolutely nothing catalytic about the plot of this movie. It was not gripping, it was not suspenseful, and nothing really even happened. The movie could have ended at any point and there was no climax of any kind (unless you thought James' death was climactic which in my opinion it was not). I can't believe Michael Parks went from Kill Bill to this crap. I want my 1:30 back.

[–] TheHypnotron 18 years ago

Lot's of good examples of why this movie fails at the story level. Well said.

[–] goodfellamf-1 16 years ago

I agree the story seemed far-fetched and rather vague on some of the important details. A few things I can say is that it just showed how much integrity the NSA guy had that an innocent girl was being tortured and would probably be killed, and he thought the right thing to do was try and save her. I think he realized when his agency friend took away his security clearance that he didn't want any part of the NSA any longer, because their priorities had changed and even if he did stay, his monotonous life would continue and his clearance level would be even lower.

I also think that the NSA considered him a pretty inconsequencial player after they confiscated his security clearance. They probably figured that the most he would do is try and call her and they would intercept the call since her phone was being constantly monitored. I doubt they would've even realized his flight to Italy with their focus on other issues.

And as far as him deceiving his friend, all I got out of that was that his friend thought it was a hypothetical simulation (sort of what they used to do together in the old days) and perhaps he was bored in his retirement. His friend tells him towards the end that he never would have helped him if he thought it was real.