Z/Web

What’s cool about this movie is also what’s yucky about this movie. Basically it’s a film about a spy couple who can’t trust each other (someone at the theatre said it reminded them of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and that’s a good comparison, though that one was more action-oriented and this one is more cerebral and more like a con or scam film). That lack of trust is humorous and fascinating, as we are never sure what’s really going on: who is conning who? But that lack of knowledge is also what makes the film frustrating, since nothing is revealed until the very end. While that ending is good, the film still feels aggravating and tedious at times, and the endless plotting and mysteries within riddles within enigmas gets tiresome at about the halfway point. To make matters worse, about half the film is flashbacks, so the director is purposely withholding information from us, making us believe (assume) something, and then pulling the rug from under us later with a flashback that reveals the truth. This means that we, the audience, is being conned as well, which is not a pleasant feeling (especially when it happens several times in a row). While the dialog and performances are excellent, and the plotting is clever at times, I did not enjoy this as well as say, the Ocean’s movies, where the unexpected happens but we can at least see where the story is going. Here we know some kind of scam is in the works, but we don’t know any details, and with everyone on screen lying, there’s is nothing in the story to ground us. In a way this is brilliant, as the film demonstrates empirically the lessons it shows visually, but in practice it’s not fun to endure. While I enjoyed this with my head at times, my heart was not in it.