Saw the movie mentioned among best movies with a plot twist. Carefully scrolled forward to avoid seeing anything except the name of the movie and that line-up shot, put it down to watch. Avoided spoilers as carefully as I could. And...
Screw accents switch. Just screw it.
I watch Person of Interest, I make a huge several-months break, I come back to it, can mostly make out what they say staight away. I miss a word or two, I look it up, it's all fine.
But here I try to watch a standalone movie, and I can't get what the hell everyone's saying for the first 20 minutes of the movie! Of course, I catch the overall direction of the dialogues, but not more than that. That bit in French when Keaton's meeting was interrupted? I understood it about as well as the English speech.
The hell?!
Out of "a truck full of guns, hijacked" I get "truck". Out of "someone heard voice"? "Someone". Out of the dialogue between Keaton and Keyser? Well, actually I got that part pretty good, only I heard "Kitten" instead of Keaton. Figured it out afterwards.
Anyway. With this movie, I'm as good as a mostly-deaf, when they hear just enough to direct their lip-reading. Meaning, I make out just enough of English to support the visuals. So, I'm left with impressions from, mostly, visuals, with only the timbre of people's voice to support it.
And I'm left with burning suspicion for Kint's character and "unreliable narrator" reverberating in my mind.
It's just, his glances. The look in his eyes! I saw the actor in American beauty and I saw him in Negotiator, and it's the look from Negotiator, hard and clever.
Then my ears start catching up with the speech and the story focuses on Keaton - and oh hell, Byrne's got beautiful eyes - and the story kind of white-washes Kint's character, but that "unreliable narrator" warning thing keeps blinking in my mind. (Along with the thought "Keaton looks soooo slasheable". I don't know what's wrong with me.)
Watch the movie to the end, sure enough, the suspicion was right!
I mean, I don't even have anyone to blame for spoilers, except my rusty perception of American English. But god dammit! I never even saw the clues narrow down on Keaton. For me it was either Kint or, perhaps, someone entirely unexpected, like that FBI guy in the hat. When they started the drawing, my bet was already on Kint. When the policeman made his speech how it's all Keaton - well, that was my promised twist, if the story says it's Keaton then it's not. But that's what I already suspected! And I was supposed to suspect him!
Doesn't even make me feel good for being smart. The movie is supposed to smack the viewer with emotions! It's supposed to be a shock, a surprise! The "oh, it's so cool, I'd never have thought it was him!". Not the "oh I expected just that all along".
One thing that I didn't expect was Kint not being actually paralysed in any degree. So there's that "oh, clever" satisfaction, at least.
(Also, I heard Kent instead of Kint, and Kayser instead of Keyser, and had to fix those after I wrote it all. )
Also, isn't Person of Interest also American? How can I hear those ones' speech mostly so well but not hear these ones'?
@темы: EN, The Usual Suspects, языки, фак мой мозг, нытье без жилетки, припала к канону