Good Ending -- How It Coulda Been Better -- SPOILERs, of course!

1. I thought, when the "High Roller" (very well played) went to cash the bets that HE had offed Julia and was going to keep the money. This was a good distraction, if intended, but if they were going for a sad ending, this would've started the boulders rolling downhill.

2. The bit about the two scraggly-haired noodnicks who wanted their money back for the fake Rolexes went nowhere. I thought the ending's irony would've been more powerful if Arno and his thugs finally appreciated that Howard was going to pay them more than they'd expected and let him go. Howard would gloat, taunting them about screwing up his earlier bet that hit. As he walked out of the store, taunting them, one of the two schnooks would blow Howard away. Maybe then, realizing they won't get their money, Phil would kill Arno and stage the robbery.

3. After all that, we could see the father's reaction to his preferred (Howard) or even both sons being blown away. If his reaction was totally financial, it would add further poignancy, and explain why the two brothers were so money-obsessed that they'd screw each other AND their father.

4. With the above ending, even if Julia lived & got the money (though, see #1) she'd have lost out for putting her trust in an obsessed a-hole like Howard. If she died, it'd be because of that misplaced love and trust. Her whole life seems to have been based on that lack of judgement.

Y'all's thoughts?