I was a film major for one semester back in college. I started with a bunch of film theory classes and started noticing that enjoying a movie was becoming impossible. I was too busy looking at the background, the lighting, the shot selection. I'd analyze the plot and question why one character acted the way he did.
The along came "
The Sixth Sense." I saw it weeks after everyone else did, but in this pre-rampant internet age, I was able to avoid the twist ending. I was completely blown away by the ending and, sitting on an airplane between Cape Town and New York, I watched it again. Simply fantastic. I talk to people who swear they knew the ending. They saw all the clues—the thermostat, the door knobs, etc. Liars. No way anyone seeing that movie for the first time picked up on any of that. Since then, I haven't been able to watch certain types of films the same way. I'm constantly looking for the secret, even thinking a character might be dead. Or everyone else is dead. Whatever.
 |
| "I see hidden meanings in every friggin' scene." |
This ruined "
Shutter Island" for me. I just watched this on my iPhone and once I realized that it was a psychological thriller and remembered someone saying something about an amazing end scene, my mind started playing out all the possibilities. Teddy is dead. Teddy is dreaming. No, Chuck is dead. There is no island. Nothing is real. Everything is real except the lighthouse. On and on. My crappy AT&T service allowed for extra thinking time, since the screen would freeze every once in awhile. I thought the movie was really good. It would have been better if I could have just watched it instead of trying to figure it out the whole time.
Maybe I'll go see Toy Story 3 again...
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