Surreal-Loved it!

I consider this a surreal film noir. The great, great scene with Wayland on the phone in the peep show booth watching Elizabeth reminded me a little of David Lynch scenes.

The first, and possibly only thing we know at the beginning and end of the film is that Wayland is a liar. The different flashbacks may or may not be representations of the truth. Wayland may not have had any of those sweet moments with Elizabeth, most likely not. He may not have been an alchoholic. He may not have been epileptic. He may have used absinthe to go into a seizure so he could act out violence on someone in the vicinity. Or maybe he did have TLE and knew what he was capable of. I do believe the following: he was rich, brilliant, a liar, had a seriously cold and domineering father and useless mother, knew people, bribed people, got things and had some kind of sexual dysfunction, was it the TLE or his upbringing?

Did anyone else notice how Elizabeth's dress color changed in different flashbacks and how it matched Kenneshaw's wife's dress? She first appears in the flashback wearing a white, sleeves dress, Kenneshaw's wife comes in a similar outfit. Then it changes to black, etc...I thought this was particularly symbolic of the notion of transference theory in psychology where someone transfers the thoughts and feelings of one person onto another. It helped build up the twist with Kenneshaw having been with Elizabeth in a violent exchange and him not quite knowing whether it was she or his wife. The colors may have been black and white,, but the story had many shades of grey.

Personally, I think Wayland had things planned from the beginning. He was a kind of artist, he was unemployed, had a lot of time and money on his hands, he wanted to be thought dead so he could go on doing dark deeds undercover. He had to offer himself up to free himself in a way. I came to this conclusion after the scene where he smiles, so self-satisfied after he sees that Kenneshaw has noticed his pupils. I love too, the acting from Tim Roth, how he so subtly changes after taking carbemazapine.

Sorry for the long-windedness here, but this was just quality. I wish there were more films like this out there.


- It smells like bread under here!-