The retelling of the same story from three perspectives was interesting ,but I found it became repetititve. Things were not seen so differently each time, and I felt like we were rehashing old ground...hence the movie being 153minutes long!
Worth a watch though. Overall, I'd give it 3 out of 5.
It's an overly abused gimmick that I find largely insufferable. Even in an immortal classic like Groundhog Day. Ultimately, while I found it tedious on first viewing, I felt it served the film well. Showing the nuance of how different people remember events. Mostly the three people remembered what happened, just in subtle different ways, and I found that interesting. In particular how Damon's emotions clearly clouded his memories, while Driver seemed to lie to himself. And each were a hero in their own minds. We are by default meant to take the girl's version as something of an unbiased view, but I don't trust her any more than the other two.
shareI would think her view would be the most reliable.
shareWhen showing the exact same scenes is where it got lazy, in my opinion Scott should have shown the scenes using a different camera view at the very least, keeping the contest fresh, rather than looking rehashed.
shareAgreed
shareI disagree. The method Scott chose to present the same scenes from alternate points of view was masterfully done, in my opinion. The content may have appeared to be "rehashed" because the differences between accounts were subtle, yet vitally important—both to the film's narrative and it's ultimate message. Had every retelling been presented as wildly different, the film would have amounted to nothing more than a simple, uninteresting guessing-game: "Okay, who's telling the truth, and who's making the whole thing up?"
That was never the intent of the film, though. It's not so much about truth and lies, but rather the small variances in perceptions of events (and the people surrounding those events) that deeply affect not only the characters of the film, but all humans living in a world of subjectivity. It makes the point that a seemingly minor misinterpretation of a person's action, or slightly misguided perception of an other's feelings is not only an extremely common phenomenon, but also a very dangerous one.
Ultimately, I thought Scott's delivery of this powerful message was brutally effective, and that the film itself was absolutely riveting.
Was about to post this, you can see this is exactly why it was done this way.
share