MovieChat Forums > De behandeling (2014) Discussion > The reveal made no sense...SPOILERS

The reveal made no sense...SPOILERS

posted 8 years ago by tobridges
4 replies | jump to latest

As the cop said early on, the crimes took planning and organization, which are pretty clearly beyond the capabilities of the mentally retarded Claeren. Same for scaling walls to peer in windows, then vanishing in a flash when the kids scream. Can you really see Claeren, obese and about as coordinated as a water buffalo, managing that? He was not believable as the killer.

Have to say, though, that he was no more unbelievable than the cop who would endure years of harrassment from his brother's kidnapper without taking action. Or who'd negotiate with the woman he'd seen on video abusing kids, instead of just leveraging - or beating - the info out of her. Most passive cop I've ever seen in a movie.

All together, a weak movie. Only part that had any punch was that ending.

[–] lennonforeveragain 8 years ago

Claeren was quite spry for his size. He seemed adept at climbing and jumping, so I can see him on rooves.

Even a man,who is pure of heart,and says his prayers by night...

[–] karlykins1967 8 years ago

Yes - totally agreed. I like the "as coordinated as a water buffalo" comment - very apt. That definitely let the whole thing down a notch - he just wasn't viable as the wall-scaling spiderman-like Troll figure. As for the mentally retarded thing - yes there was definitely an unhinged thing going down, but bear in mind he was supposedly sufficiently compos mentis enough to know how to use a darkroom and develop and print 35mm film...! Hmm.
And you're right again about the cop. As another contributor said elsewhere, it was totally ridiculous and frustrating as a viewer to see the cop continually going off on his own - doing the solitary 'tortured soul' bit - and barely collaborating with the rest of the department. No hard ass "your ass is grass if you continue like this" police chief would have permitted that. And once again - quite rightly I totally agree that if he was as tortured by his younger brother's abduction so many years earlier, for so long - absolutely no way would he have taken so much *beep* from the suspected paedophile neighbour (emptying sacks of pig bones onto his lawn and taunting him continually with enigmatic letters) or let the complicit scrote Nancy try and lever her way out of conviction. You definitely would have to simply beat an answer out of her. So many aspects of the character's motivation simply didn't tie in too well with the overall thread of the plot.
That being said, I still thought the movie was very watchable and quite gripping (even if at times there felt like there were more holes in the goings-on than in a piece of swiss cheese from a Tom & Jerry cartoon).
Anyhow, that's just my take on things.

[–] dga23 7 years ago

Not bad - 7.5

"She let me go."
~White Oleander

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

He was a functional retard, or whatever it is called. He seemed fast enough and strong enough to do all those things he did in the movie.

But... what does that tell us about the police that wasn't capable of capturing him for 25 years? If you're a police officer, and when you finally capture a culprit after 25 years you discover that he's retarded, that's not something to write home about, is it?