MovieChat Forums > Taking Lives (2004) Discussion > matchstick men

matchstick men

posted 13 years ago by nads52
4 replies | jump to latest

i enjoyed the film and all and love these types of movies, and all in all the film didn't have too many plot holes which is good. However one i did find was when the french agent comes to the hotel where angela jolie is staying just before the love scene, and he asks the concierge 'can i go up to the room' and the concierge is like no sorry she has a don't disturb on the room, and all the while he is making a matchstick man and the camera seemed to make a point of seeing this close...just wondering, does this suggest his involvement or is it a plot hole?

[–] TheMulderFox 13 years ago

This is the one thing about the film that really bugged me as well. I suppose he could just have 'confiscated' it from the apartment crime scene. But then the same type of figures are found in the Asher basement. This seems to imply at least that the french-canadian officer might have been involved, coupled with the fact that he seems to be the only one who doesn't want Angelina's character there.

On a side note, in the scene where Angie gets grabbed from under the bed the frame of the man who runs away stikes me as someone who is larger than Asher, like say the Canadian cop. It is never clearly revealed who that was and the matchstick men is the only thing that ties it all together as well. But that could just be my paranoid mind at work.

[–] economicadviser52 13 years ago

Valid point raised, thanks for the reply wondering if i was the only one ;D but yes i also thought the guy who jumped her looked bigger than slimmer ethan...wondered if the cop mightve been his brother, but they said he was murdered but i think they mightve said something about his body was never found so that mightve been him? Dunno just a guess really but yeh they probs should have explained that part a little more. Overall though i really enjoyed the film

[–] bhobnine 12 years ago

and all the while he is making a matchstick man and the camera seemed to make a point of seeing this close...just wondering, does this suggest his involvement or is it a plot hole?

Most certainly does suggest that he might even be the killer!

But by the end, the information provided does not make that assumption.
Which ends up saying, " several people in Canada make matchstick men."

What it does function as is a 'red herring'.
Something to throw the audiance off the trail of the true killer,
until the screenplay wishes to divulge that information.
Like they felt the Kiefer Sutherland character wasnt
enough of a misdirection, and that they had to add
another potential chameleon.

Hey, if it was written by Agatha Christie you would have had
twenty of these guys going on.

"Pffft, my suspension of disbelief has higher standards than that"

[–] nads52 12 years ago

wow thankyou for replying! I had forgotten I wrote this. Yes it makes sense that it is a red herring as you suggested :D