2007 Film List

Gray, who has apparently never before had any stirrings or attractions towards women, decides she is gay (her psychiatrist suggests she was subconsciously trying to undermine her brother's marraige because she was afraid of it changing their relationship). Dumps on the best relationship in the movie, with her friend Gordy, played brilliantly by Alan Cumming, and hooks up with a coworker at a gay bar. this AFTER the movie had specifically pointed out the problems with meeting people at bars. And we're supposed to believe a night of meaningless sex and losing her gay virginity is supposed to be a triumph for this character we've come to care about so much through the brilliant writing of the first two acts? The film really works against itself because it decides to be blase instead of daring, it goes for the incredibly typical indy film 'i'm gay I've got to come out and find myself, my new gay identity will be based on meaningless sex, not relationships' approach. A truly original film would have had her NOT be gay, or at least bi, which would be as Shocking a move in today's film world, as having a main character realize they're gay in the films of the 60s or 70s. The film is strongly influenced by Billy Wilder, and fans of his films should definitely check this out, it's the rare worthy romantic comedy.

The other problem with making Gray gay is that it turns the end of the film into a message movie, this results in a poigant elevator scene that simply goes on LONG after it already made it's point. And she truly is a gray character, so transforming her sexuality into a black or white issue undoes a lot of character development that was rather subtly and brilliantly accomplished earlier in the film. It's a rare thing that a movie this good could sabotage itself so completely in the third act, but it's more than worth seeing, in fact this would almost be one of my favorite modern movies.

Regarding the endings.

BIGTIME SPOILERS!

The first big problem is with the sudden exit of Kate Mara at the end of the second act. We're already surprised that they haven't tracked Wahlberg to Mara, and the fact that he didn't recognize they would and didn't provide for her some sort of shelter/safe house or other protection but instead sent her back to her home just makes absolutely no sense at all. I would have liked a scene explaining that decision, especially because their chemistry is so superb. As it is it just feels like an excuse for her to become bait to be used against wahlberg.

Now the first ending on the mountaintop. Michael Pena is shot in the back, but he drops a half inch steel plate from the _front_ of his torso. hmmm...
Then, the senator simply talks to much, and nothing Walhberg really does makes any sense at all. It'd either be better to have him just give up immediately (confident he can get off, see second ending below) or simply not have the scene occur at all (for all it's snowy splendor as one of the 'coolest' moments of the film).

The second ending, in which Wahlberg proves his innocence to the attorney general and is set free is nice, but again nothing much is accomplished here. This could be improved if we found out that Wahlberg wasn't motivated by patriotism/button pushing earlier (when he explains himself to Mara) but because he recognized he would be set up and that the people setting him up were probably the people who abanoned and betrayed him at the start of the film. This makes Wahlberg's arc a lot more interesting and gives him better motivation than simple altruism. since this second ending seems to imply that Wahlberg recognized the danger of being set up, this would make the film more consistent throughout.

Finally the third ending just rings wrong. The best way to assassinate a politician is with exposure, not a gun. Wahlberg could have still taken out all of the people in the cabin with the handgun and then given the senator the gun and walked out after turning on CNN to reveal to the senator that he's sent tapes/surveillance of the senator to all the major networks and they are currently running it. Wahlberg walks out into the night, the senator shoots himself. Wahlberg actually assassinating the senator while somewhat satisfying also feels very wrong.