Then the film hits a massive slump and seemingly stops moving forward up until the end. The character of Richard tends to switch personalities quite often, some of which is within reason but other times it's inappropriately over the top. I enjoyed the film right up until the event that changes the momentum of the film, and everything after the event came across forced, almost as if they had no idea how to capture the emotion.
shareI think that's perhaps as the director intends the viewer to feel. This fun, energetic chap's life suddenly screeches to a halt and negative emotions prevail from that point. One of the main ones is self-doubt, so the characters don't really know their own feelings. But yes. I too find it fun until halfway through.
shareI agree it starts out very nicely. The second half is all so obvious though. It's exactly what we expect someone with a huge guilt on their mind to do. He screams into a pillow, walks along the beach, starts drinking, etc. If you asked me what THE most cliche things someone could do in a movie to indicate there's something weighing on their conscience, I would have listed those exact 3 things.
I wanted something more and deeper. Having it manifest in unexpected ways maybe, even to Richard. Truly making it something beyond his control, which would scare him even more. But no, we got some generic 'he feels bad, see?!' type stuff...
"What? Do you wanna just sit around and be wrong?" - Liz Lemon
If it was an American "made-for-tv" film then Richard after much soul searching and not banging an under-age girl would have handed himself in. Or a witness would have come forward to say they saw someone ELSE kill/hit Conor after Richard and his friends had left him.
I didn't think it was totally obvious but I did wonder would Richard either turn himself in (probably not) OR would someone else turn him in. Now that would have been interesting..would he tell the truth in that case?
Just out of curiousity what would you have liked to see in the 2nd half? We never really know if one of the friends won't at some stage tell on Richard. All we know for sure is that he won't turn himself into the police.
Hey Posh_babe, getting some convo started about this movie, I like it! But honestly I hadn't given much thought to the aspect of whether anyone will confess or not. I say this for two reasons: number one it's not really the point of the movie. The focus was on him dealing with the guilt, whether he'll end up getting busted for it is kind of irrelevant. But again, how we're shown him processing it was all very cliche, and I wanted more. Hard to say what specifically since I just saw the movie, I may need more time to figure out where it should go. Like I said, having it manifest in unexpected ways and scare even the Richard character would be a good start. However all of that's on the writers, that's literally their job, and to me they kind of phoned in the second half.
Second reason I never really thought about anyone squealing is because the movie never really hints at the fact that anyone will talk. The director pretty much says it's not going to happen in my opinion. So yeah, there ya go. What did you think of the 2nd half by the way? Did you like the way they showed Richard dealing with his guilt?
"What? Do you wanna just sit around and be wrong?" - Liz Lemon
Delighted some people are finally watching the movie and talking about it.
Didn't like the way he dealt with his guilt as while some thought he did feel guilty I didn't. Not much anyway.
He says to his girlfriend, Lara "how could this happen to ME" or words to that effect. His first words were not "poor Conor" or "I really didn't mean to do him any real harm". Mabye it's human nature but I don't think Richard really felt bad. Some posters have said he carries his guilt with him but he gets to live his life.
In the 2nd half we don't really know if Richard is just really scared of the consequences for himself or does he really feel guilty. I think it's more the former. If it showed him becoming an alcololic or quitting/failing college, getting nightmares etc maybe I could say he is not dealing with his guilt but he goes on to university from secondary school and gets on with his life. We don't see him with Lara or his friends though but that may be their choice more than his. In fact I think they don't want to talk to him anymore.
He indirectly got his friends into trouble too as they did punch Conor. When he meets them he doesn't seem to show any guilt or too much concern for them only for himself. I think the character of Richard is very shallow. Sometimes the most popular people are.
I can't remember much of the film now. Though, it's quite clear Richard is a sociopath.
shareI think it hit a "massive slump" in the opening credits. It was over 40 minutes before the big event happened. The character development and audience connection to characters could have been achieved in half or less. I'm not sure what event you're referring to. I admit I fast forwarded through some but went back and watched every excruciating frame. The ending was as clear as mud. It's not the Tomlin-Travolta bomb, Moment by Moment, but easily one of the slowest and most boring films I've endured.
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