I hear a lot of talk...but did anybody actually understand this flick?

Probably the least sense was killing his head of security.

I didn't get all the cultural signifiers/references myself, but the characters and dialogue made sense to me most of the time. It should be obvious why Packer killed his head of security since it was explained to you more than once: being at the top of the financial system and sheltered by his power so long had made him weary/reckless, he craved an unfamiliar event.

If you didn't get anything from it the first time, I don't see how a second viewing would help. You are obviously just too obtuse for this film, given it's rating about half the people who saw it were.

Who even cares if one "understands" it or not when its served up as such a ponderous talk show that lasts almost 2 hours and alternates ceaselessly between scenes of self-consciously elliptical dialogue and a series of rambling, maddeningly vague monologues delivered by a bunch of dull mouthpieces dropping in and out of the film to share their precious, long winded wisdoms? I did manage to maintain a mild curiosity about the proceedings for about the first 30 minutes, but after that... forget it. It´s all about as uncinematic and unengaging as it gets and the lofty wittering emanating from the character´s mouths minute after tedious minute becomes just grating. Punishing. Too bad to see Cronenberg succumbing to his worst instincts and sinking into some kind of an intellectualist swamp of his own creation as - after the hollow, superficially elegant A Dangerous Method - he´s certainly reached an artistic dead-end. And become something of an insufferable bore.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

A story of a man on a downward spiral can be an interesting read. Especially when he starts out the story with everything anyone could want. It's the old telling of a person reaching the top of the mountain, and finding it's not as beautiful up there as he assumed.

Packer felt disconnected from raw human feelings. Even Michael Chin, his 'tech-whiz' of sorts, moves away from him in the limo, when Packer starts to speculate on a personal level. Packer succeeded in everything, but discovered he was happiest in his simpler life, in his social connections.

It didn't say or show in the film, but it wasn't just HIS money that he was blowing on the Yuan. In the book,(and in a small scene in the film) his new wife offers to help him financially out of the hole he's in, not realizing that he was deliberately losing money. What she's not aware of, is that he's hacked into her accounts, and has invested all her money, too. She won't know until after he's dead that she's completely broke, also. And killing his security-head is just one more assurance that there's no going back to a 'safe' life.

The limo was, in a sense, the embodiment of the slow destruction of his will to go on living.

~Inkdrchr! "Coffee! Coffee!! Coffee!!!"

I actually thought of this movie as more of a state of mind rather than reality. The state of mind of Eric Packer. And the way it completely crumbles by the end. Him killing his head of security was a way of stopping himself from being protected. He wanted to die. It was a difficult movie to get through but its one of those that's more a piece of art than a movie. Difficult but brilliant.

<3Every great dream begins with a dreamer<3

This film is about a man, a man who had everything come easy for him, he built a company that made money, he became very rich. He did this all without much effort.

Listening to what he says you realise he's tried to experience everything, do everything his money allows him to do, he has an insatiable desire to experience as much of the world as he can, read every book he can, know about everything, a luxury affored him by his success. Maybe he is searching for something, but nothing seems to fill that hollow void inside him.

Once he's done all that, seen all he can see, do all he can do, he get's bored. Bored with the pointlessness of his existence, the meaninglessness of his accomplishments.

The only thing left he hasn't experienced is death. This film is about his slow self destruction.

During the talk between Paul's character and Eric, Eric says something about people wanting to do things because other people do them.

Before Eric kills his bodyguard, in the club he asks his friend if he ever killed anybody. Considering the scene before that consisted of his wife practically saying its over, maybe it was anger, maybe it was just doing something he has not done before.

" I hear a lot of talk...but did anybody actually understand this flick?"

The way I read this movie (never read the book btw) is far from literal (of course). From the first step Packer was heading towards liberating himself from a world that's gone mad. Did he lose his money or did he become aware of being caught in a suffocating system? His superficial appearance is a plain copy of many an other (stretched white limo). The inside may be somewhat different, but all together his thinking was in compliance with that system. The journey explores and shows his understanding about modern life; success depending on predictions, where surprises are not being part of the equations. One of those aberrations is the asymmetrical tendency of nature, of which he himself is built from. So, Packer goes back to his roots; visiting the barber to get a haircut. What else can barbers do? But before he really can meet under the right conditions he needs to get rid of his so called security. During his way to that barber's his looks already adapted to his inner urge; live according the mystical asymmetric rules of nature, which, of course, made him vulnerable. His limo is no longer one of many and shows more and more the uniqueness required to be a genuine being. Then he meets his barber, who tells him stories of his past, his father, his roots. The barber even provides him a real gun. Spontaneously he leaves the barber, who did not finish his job, resulting in an asymmetrical haircut. Yet Packer promises to meeting him again ... So, who is that barber? Then finally he encounters the true goal of his journey; a guy who knows every little detail about Packer. Not even the slightest thought did escape his mind; like a memory reliving the past. The towel hiding his face reminds of the barber's visit. The guy's gun is as real as the one Packer used to terminate his security. So there Packer sits, like a desperate man, seeking reconciliation with his past, with nature, with his true self. In his hand a genuine gun.

The final word is painted by Rothko.

I think it was great!