I realize it's a movie, thus, sort of promising a payoff. But I found the ending, after the buildup, to be much like life. And though it bothered me, it did so in the way life events do so. I didn't "like" it, but I found it true.

That's a good way of putting it, Beverly.

Plus, she said, turning on a dime, Hot Doctor Luka! And Tilda? So icy she smoulders.

I think the idea is that the action is subservient to the emotional turning point. The fistfight isn't terribly showy; what matters in which side Alek comes in on. The "chase" in the car isn't important; what matters is who is driving.

(Also, I think the filmmakers couldn't afford a car crash scene.)

In some ways, I think it would be just as interesting if Alek disappeared and we never heard from him again; but I think the death scene is a nod to the film noir elements with which the whole film is in dialogue. Have to have closure, even if closure is actually not closing anything at all (emotionally speaking), only making things messier and more open.

I found that film deeply indifference -nducing after the first half hour. The symbolism (water, dripping, in every single shot) felt troweled on and none of the characters read as human beings to me. It was beautiful to look at, though.

His final scene contained so much unspoken paternal pride even as Bruce/Batman rejects him as a father figure with "I don't have to save you."

See, this is why I think I might need to see it again, because I don't think I got that out of the movie and I'm usually all about the Daddy Issues. But I could. not. get past the fact the weapon absolutely would not work -- or, rather, would work too well -- and I was so busy seething about that (and the fact all the nitpicky people I know had seen it and NOT WARNED ME, and I'm so not a nitpicky type most days) that I couldn't really watch the movie.

OTOH, a big part of me was lost when Thomas Wayne says "Why do we fall? To learn how to pick ourselves up," or whatever it was. Your son could have broken his back and was scared out of his mind, asshole -- now is not the time to impart penny-ante Words of Wisdom.

Anyhow, my theory is that if I go in knowing I'm going to hate that part of it, I might be able to actually enjoy the good parts.

Why if the Golden Ticket contest is "world wide" are all the winning children white?

Aren't they all English-speaking, too? And possibly all actually British? Dahl's world was not so very, um, wide.

And possibly all actually British?

Augustus is German in both movies, but not explicitly so in the book, IIRC.

And didn't Anne Hathaway have some shocking movie coming out where she was going to be doing full-frontal and girl-on-girl?

The movie is called Havoc and, apparently, is not quite as shockingly sexual as early rumors claimed. No full-frontal, though a fair amount of topless, and pretty ridiculously foul language, however. I'm not sure about the girl-on-girl. The plotline is that the main character (Allison, played by Anne) is super desperate to get into this gang, and the story of what she is willing to gain their, I dunno, respect? Or at least their acceptance. It sounds really depressing and probably not very good.

I doubt it will ever get a decently wide release. It seems like one of those stuck-in-limbo movies.

Isn't that precisely the time to distract from the disaster that could have happened, LJ? Last thing the kid needs is reality right then.

I can understand the philosophical basis for what you're saying, ita. It still pissed me off -- I think I just don't like the "stiff upper lip, be a man, here are some Inspiring Words" school of childrearing.

Seriously, I feel like I watched a completely different "Batman Begins" than everyone else in the world. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad.