***** MASSIVE spoilers in my post *****
Why did she never leave her apartment?
She was running away/hiding from her past life. Her family was extremely rich and thus famous. She had been notoriously missing for many years. She just wanted to be left alone.
Why did she so easily leave with no problems in the end?
While she did develop agoraphobia to an extent due to her isolation, that wasn't why she initially had stayed holed-up in the apartment, and it wasn't the primary motivation for not leaving (see the above point for the primary reason that she stayed isolated for so long). Did you not see the events of the film where her support structure basically collapsed, so that she had no choice but to leave/make changes, AND where she lucked into the perfect situation so that she could both leave AND be permanently divorced from who she really was?
Also, the attempted con, reaching all the way down to the only person she really trusted, basically "shocked" her into action.
Why did she call the press to the bank when she easily could have just called the cops?
Somehow you missed how famous she was, you missed the fact that people have been trying to figure out what happened to her for years. You missed the fact that she now had someone whom she could set up as being her past identity, with it being non-falsifiable for Lillian to deny that she wasn't really "Abigail".
Please don't say so she could disappear again, the press and the police know the truth?
The press do not at all know the truth. There's absolutely NO reason to believe that, and in fact, the whole point of that scene was so that the press would believe that Lillian was Abigail and so that it would not be possible for Lillian to successfully deny that she was Abigail. Lillian could not use what she had been doing until that point as evidence, because everyone would interpret that as
Abigail doing those things while she was on the run/in hiding/using false identities for 17 years. Remember that absolutely no one left alive knew
anything about Abigail for the last 17 years. So if folks believed that Lillian was Abigail, then whatever Lillian had been doing is what Abigail had been doing in their mind. Lillian's denials would be taken as lies in attempt to just be left alone again.
Even if Lillian had said, "But the
real Abigail lived in that apartment on Columbus Circle for 17 years and I didn't!", it doesn't matter, because it's not like she couldn't have owned that apartment for 17 years without being there very often. Don't forget that (a) the only person who EVER saw her was Ray, but he's dead, and (b) the only person who EVER interacted with her otherwise was the concierge, and he's now dead, too.
We only have reason to believe that two policemen knew the truth, but those two policemen figured out what really was going on plus they saw the real Abigail as an unfortunate victim who deserved to live a normal life free from her past. That the policeman gave a "knowing nod" and passed her by is a clear indication of this.
How did she so easily murder the con man?
By repeatedly sticking a knife into his back. It's not that tough. If you mean emotionally how did she manage to do that--did you not see all of that stuff about her being abused in the past? Lillian and her boyfriend inadvertently triggered a severe, defensive emotional response in their poorly thought-out set-up. Abigail wasn't about to see someone go through that crap again, or go through it herself.
Is she is a murderer?
She committed homicide at least, in the instance that we're discussing.
Why did the cops let her go after the bank incident? I'm sure in a matter of minutes they would find out she was the killer?
I just explained this above. Lillian was a career criminal. She would be pinned with the murder, and saddled with Abigail's old identity. That was a satisfactory outcome for those two policemen, because they were sympathetic towards Abigail. They rightly saw her as a victim.
Why did she so calmly leave the country? How does someone involved in 3 murders and a con game just leave? Nyc detectives are easy? I don't think so?
Again, there are only two policemen who know the truth, and they've decided to let her get on with living a normal life. This is clearly conveyed to both Abigail and the audience in that final scene.
Is this how Hollywood writers view NYC?
Fictional films are not intended to be documentaries. It's not an essay about how anyone views the actual world New York City. It's a fictional thriller.
Nor have I ever heard of people in nyc never leaving their apartment.
Not that it needs to be non-fictional, but plenty of people unfortunately suffer from agoraphobia, including some people in New York City.
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eagle79-1
12 years ago
Gee! You really have an amazing capacity to iron out EVERY plot hole of this amazingly contrived film (I wouldn't be surprised if you're one of the people who wrote it & you're trying to stem the tide of baffled viewers' questions). But hey, if the film made sense to you & found it enjoyable, good for you. I, on the other hand, will offer MY own answers to this tangled thread:
"Why did she never leave her apartment? Why did she so easily leave with no problems in the end?"
Because that's what happens when a character (the film's lead, in this case) is badly written. She lives across the site of a murdered neighbor & she doesn't freak out or get suspicious when a couple moves into it over her ignored request to buy it? A recent crime scene? She witnesses a battering through her peephole and, instead of phoning the receptionists or the POLICE, thinks nothing of letting in a just-battered woman into her apartment (while the husband might still be roaming the aisle). Huh?
She lets the woman sleep overnight on her place & then lets this unstable person in an unstable, highly suspicious situation convince her to come out of the place she's been holed up for years to walk the aisle with her? I practically gave up at this point.
"The con, reaching all the way down to the only person she really trusted, basically "shocked" her into action."
You mean to tell me her stabbing of the blonde's husband wasn't enough to shock her into awareness then & there? I'll tell you what would've shocked her into it: The amazing realization that, in a place as top-level as Columbus Circle (I've been there) apartments are palatial in the interior but closer than Holiday Inn's rooms when you step out of them. A place where the administration doesn't check anyone's background to figure out their receptionists have crime-ridden pasts. Unbelievable.
"The two policemen who know the truth, and they've decided to let her get on with living a normal life."
WHAT? On what planet would any policeman let ANYONE (and a murderess, no less!) off the hook on an unfinished investigation by making a last-minute heart-tugging emotional executive decision? Only on a film like this, where two keystone cops step into somebody's freshly painted lawn without realizing it. Only on a stunningly BAD movie.
"Why did she so easily leave with no problems in the end?"
Because the staggeringly improbable script allowed her to. Forget about the fact that we live in the 21st century & there is such a thing as DNA, fingerprints & dental records that will eventually reveal to the police WHO the blonde character really is. Forget about the fact that the real heiress must've transferred all those millions someplace else and her bank is not going to know where? She did take her money with her, didn't she? Why should she bother anyway, when stealing her account password was so easy? You know the minute she turns her back on her cabana in Aruba (or wherever it is she'll be "hiding" next) somebody will easily do it again. That is, IF she manages to leave the country, which is next to impossible but not in a bad film such as this.
"Is this how Hollywood writers view NYC?"
The setting for this film could've been Peoria, Tibet or the Bermuda Triangle for that matter. I guess NYC is the most exciting location. It doesn't change the fact that everything else doesn't work.
I caught this on Netflix & they seem to be adding a LOT of recent bad movies (such as APARTMENT 143, AREA 407 and ATM) lately. Approach with caution.
;)
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