This happens right after he wins in court. I will make my own directors cut and say this movie is over after that. A man of that intelligence would not be so stupid to think if he invited the district attorney over after losing a case and think he would not be wired. who writes this crap. This movie was really good for 1hr 30min.
shareA man of that intelligence would not be so stupid to think if he invited the district attorney over after losing a case and think he would not be wired. who writes this crap.
He would have know he could have been tried again or should have considering the research his character did. I liked the movie till the end but you show your intelligence by insulting people you disagree with so that makes you a real genius I guess.
shareHe would have know he could have been tried again or should have considering the research his character did.
Hey, fair enough. Your argument is well reasoned and taken into consideration. Perhaps I may have been to hash on the script. I felt the movie lost momentum in some fashion. It could have been the fact I hate 3 twists in the last 15 min. set them up and knock'em down sort of thing. It is to formulated for me to really enjoy. Fantastic movie all the same, but opinions are like......
shareWhile I think your statements are perfectly logical, I tend to agree with the OP. I just think he expressed it the wrong way.
We're still dealing with the realm of fiction and fantasy. The film sets up Ted's character as a complete mastermind, always steps ahead of poor Rob. For Rob to suddenly be able to beat him this way by noticing the gun swap through a phone swap (slightly derp) and then getting a recorded confession by wearing a wire (starting to become a tired cliche) seems too cheap for this kind of seemingly invincible villain.
Basically I think the writers built up Ted's character too high for him to be beaten so easily. They set up a wonderful metaphor with the hairline fracture in an egg. I wish they would have utilized this better in a way where Rob realizes a most subtle character flaw in Ted, for example, that ultimately allows him to notice a most overlooked piece of evidence. The gun swap could be argued as such, but I think it was just a bit too blatant and obvious with how they handled it.
I just wish the ending was a bit more clever given how cleverly they set up the rest of the film. It also ceased to become a real battle of wits and manipulation. It just turned into a fairly standard affair towards the end.
You don't get the ending.
Willy was not wearing a wire.He had the evidence (the murder weapon) now and that's all he needed to send Ted to jail.However the fact that he had new evidence now didn't mean *beep* since Ted had already been acquitted of the crime.But Ted was earlier charged with attempted homicide but now since he pulled the plug on his wife,he'd be charged with homicide and that would allow Willy to present new evidence.
The movie portrays Ted as really smart.He's not portrayed as Batman and even though Willy is portrayed as cocky and arrogant,he's not an idiot.He's in fact really smart too.
The ending was kind of poetic in a way that every egg has a tiny fracture and all it takes is one crack for an egg to break and that one crack is all Willy needed to turn the game.Ted was good at finding other people's cracks but he overlooked his own vulnerability.He was so enamoured by the beauty of his plan that he thought no one would ever find out how he did it.
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."
by Hallucinogen-X ยป Tue Dec 31 2013 15:34:17
IMDb member since June 2011
...He was so enamoured by the beauty of his plan that he thought no one would ever find out how he did it.
Agreed, completely. Someone of his intellect would not have missed the fact that pulling the plug on his wife changed the facts of the case and nullified the double jeopardy law. Up until that point, I thought the movie was brilliant, as were the performances.
shareHe was cocky because of the double jeopardy rule.
Its that man again!!
Agreed. He's played the game perfectly up until the moment he won in court, yet rather than walking away the victor, he decided to keep playing the game, and essentially unravel his plan in the process. Pretty stupid move for someone so clever. The ending was pretty lame.
shareI actually liked the ending.
shareWhat did he do at the end that was so stupid? The lawyer figured it out on his own, and already had the murder weapon from the cop that shot himself.
shareThere was nothing stupid about the ending. Ted Crawford enjoyed his sadistic, narcissistic little game to the point of overlooking his own "fracture". It was the perfect ending. Serial killers do the same thing. They can string cops along for years and then 20-30 years later make the stupidest mistake that gets them caught. Overly confident (and intelligent) people like these planned murderers, etc., often get too cocky and then get sloppy.
"I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?"
Yeah I have to say I thought that was pretty lame. If he was really so intelligent he should have just quit while he was ahead. On the one hand, yeah, the guy is clearly in love with himself and his oh-so-perfect plan, but on the other hand he seems to be genuinely intelligent and I just can't accept how he could let his whole thing unravel in such a stupid way at the end.
The thing is, the movie could have been a lot better than it was. That's what disappoints me. It's not a bad movie, it's actually kind of good, but the fact that it could have been better but wasted its potential just bothers me. Anthony Hopkins was brilliant but he just wasn't given much to work with. Ryan Gosling was meh but even he could have been better if this story had been written better. It just got kind of lazy toward the end, it seemed like.
The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of history.
-Mao Zedong
You nailed it. 7/10ths of the movie was gold. Then within a few minutes I got the impression that maybe the screenwriter and director got fired and someone else finished the movie. I can't think of a more stark example of botching it at the end than this.
shareAfter being acquitted at trial, due to double jeopardy, Crawford could have walked into the police station, loudly told the story of his entire plan and how it all really happened, and there was nothing anyone could have done about it, as far as Crawford knew.
Fortunately, Beachum is an actual lawyer and if there's one (and only one) thing he's smarter about than Crawford, it's law, and he was able to find an exception to double jeopardy that would apply in this case. Crawford wasn't an "idiot", he was just arrogant and he finally pushed it too far.
Crawford is arrogant and narcissistic, but even so in his mind he need not worry about a wire since he believes he can not be retried.
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It actually would have been a really good idea for Willie to wear a wire. Because since Crawford is now indictable for murder, the double jeopardy rule doesn't apply as pointed out in the movie.
So if Willie did wear a wire, Ted's confession would now legally be able to be used, if double jeopardy no longer applies. It would have helped the case enormously for the jury to hear Ted confess to Willie. I mean all they have is the murder weapon, which is Nunnally's gun, but the evil confession Ted gave on top of that, would have been unbeatable in every way.
However, if Willie did wear a wire, and got the confession, he would then have to be a witness to corroborate and be subject to cross-examination by Ted's attorney.
So therefore, Willie would have not have been able to act as prosecutor of the case, if he recorded the confession. But getting the confession still would have been worth stepping down as prosecutor, and becoming a witness, cause it still means winning.
Not to mention thst he had resigned as a prosecutor and would have been fured if he wasn't. I doubt the DA would have given him another shot at prosecuting Crawford. He probably wouldn't even have wanted him as a witness.
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