Problems with this movie - Contains Spoilers - The Broken (2008) Discussion

[–] heat22000 16 years ago

Regarding (3)

If my interpretation is right, there was never really any corpse in Gina's flat. She was suffering from a disassociative mental illness where she saw herself as two people and shortly before her car smash one of them had 'killed' the other after 'seeing' them driving by and going into her home.

Admittedly, it is a mind-bender because it calls into question just how much of what we see is real, imagined or symbolic. I still can't decide if anybody was actually murdered. I don't think there were ever really supernatural reflections climbing out of mirrors and killing people so was Gina the killer all along (fiendishly presented to the audience as being slain by THEIR own dopplegangers) as or was it all in her head i.e she was 'killed' by herself so that is what she thinks is happening to others?

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[–] STEVE-1559 16 years ago

The film would work better with this interpretaton. The problem with it is that too much happens when Gina is not onscreen so it cannot be her hallucination. The film presents the story from an objective viewpoint, not only from Gina's point of view.

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[–] angusahudson_bsc 16 years ago

STEVE-1559 has a good point - but it works ok-ish if you just go with it and accept the story and don't analyse it too much. Admittedly not always an easy thing to do, but sometimes worth it.

For me the film is rewarding in the way it creates a genuine sense of subtle unease which is rare these days.

However a good satisfying story wouldn't have hurt : )

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[–] STEVE-1559 16 years ago

In spite of everything, I did like the movie. I just found the resolution unsatisfying because of the unanswered questions. I wish the filmmakers had been more clever about making the paranoid explanation believable.

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[–] demon-xp 16 years ago

==================================
by heat22000 (Tue Sep 2 2008 07:33:14) Ignore this User | Report Abuse

Regarding (3)

If my interpretation is right, there was never really any corpse in Gina's flat. She was suffering from a disassociative mental illness where she saw herself as two people and shortly before her car smash one of them had 'killed' the other after 'seeing' them driving by and going into her home.

Admittedly, it is a mind-bender because it calls into question just how much of what we see is real, imagined or symbolic. I still can't decide if anybody was actually murdered. I don't think there were ever really supernatural reflections climbing out of mirrors and killing people so was Gina the killer all along (fiendishly presented to the audience as being slain by THEIR own dopplegangers) as or was it all in her head i.e she was 'killed' by herself so that is what she thinks is happening to others?
=================================

Dude if this site had user rating, you'd have gotnen A++

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[–] jimmytay_5a 16 years ago

Interesting interpretation, but there was a murder not being imagined by Gina - her brother's girlfriend was killed in her bathroom... which explains why her brother was heart-broken when he saw Gina acting cold as his girlfriend...

I don't think Gina's boyfriend was trying to kill her. If he was, he might have killed her right before she noticed at her back... He's not even trying to stop her in the attic, but just asking her what was she doing...

I think the scene she's throwing the x-ray away is just explaining that she's doing and will be doing all the "evidence eliminations" to cover her tracks...

I wonder why her doctors watching her leaving so weirdly thru window, maybe they discovered something wrong with her, or they have already become ones...???

Is everything started because of the broken glass on her father's birthday? Then what's the relation to that Korean woman??? and the two dogs??? Did they break their glasses too???

Can't stop thinking WHY WHY WHY after watching the movie... but it's kind of interesting though :)

Lastly can somebody explain to me the quote at the beginning of the movie???

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[–] WynneL 16 years ago

It's actually better to read John Dies at the End, by David Wong than watch this movie, because Broken seems to take a lot of ideas from that book. But that book actually explained its weirder moments, and was hilarious.

One of the biggest reasons I couldn't buy this movie was that no one ever smiled when they look in the mirror. I always smile at my reflection. Maybe that's why she hasn't tried to murder me yet. Because we're friendly.

With Broken, after I had finished watching it, all the things I thought would haunt me... just didn't, because it made no sense. I couldn't buy the universe. I find a universe that contains humor and satire to be far more compelling and scary, because those things are part of life. 1408 (a nice horror film based on a Stephen King story starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson) is quite a bit better, and so is the book mentioned above.

I really liked the acting, the directing, and the score... but the plot was far too derivative and inexplicable for this to be what it could have been.

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[–] newrynyuk 16 years ago

And also. How is it that Stefan's evil double tries to kill Gina when all the other evil twins only kill the original versions of themselves? Gin's double meets the evil doppelgangers of her brother and her dad but doesn't try to kill either.

The whole movie kinda reminded me of The Sixth Sense in that the twist at the end was meant to make you rethink the whole story that you've just seen. Only if you do do that, you'll find a lot of holes in the plot.

Still. Lena Headey looked lovely in it, no?

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[–] angusahudson_bsc 16 years ago

Gina was already the evil doppleganger when the accident happened but when she came round she forgot she was evil. Evil Stefen tried to kell her as Gina wasn't complying with the evil doppelgangers code.

I think.

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[–] gudoleboy2 16 years ago

1) a) The investigation could have occurred off screen. You should understand the accident itself wasn't important, it was just to serve as an explanation as to how Gina loses her memory. Gina's memory loss is what's significant of the event.
b) If Gina survived the crash, why is it hard to believe the other driver survived the crash as well.

2) The movie doesn't state how many days or weeks have elapse between the accident and her returning to work.

3) Why would they need to collect her things? She wasn't dead, she survived the crash. And the hospital provides all the items you mentioned: toothbrush, clothes, food, etc.

4) I don't think she was trying to cover her tracks. It was just a chest x-ray and she was done with it. The scene was probably a metaphor that she resolved the confusion she was having and was done with her problems. It was a metaphor referencing that real Gina was no longer an obstacle.

Why are you focusing on such insignificant parts of the film?

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[–] drdaleposey 16 years ago

I thought this was a good suspenseful movie as far as it went but it was like reading a whole long, involved mystery novel only to find that someone tore out the last chapter. With the number 4 problem above, the evil twin destroyed the Xray because the heart was on the wrong side, implying that it was a mirror image and thus belonged to the evil twin. Was this like a "breaking a mirror is bad luck thing?"

Another question: Why did the boyfriend's dog not like the evil twin of him but was comfortable with her evil twin.

Still.... I would like to know what this was about.

So this is Sara Connor. Does she talk with an English accent in real life? She's pretty American in the TV show.

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[–] stillvendetta 16 years ago

I'm simply amazed at how many people didn't get this.

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[–] pricanmami_82 16 years ago

Would you care to enlighten us then?

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[–] leon_lost_soul 16 years ago

the whole plot don't make sense. and it has nothing to show until the reveal in the end which isn't enough to save the movie. the doppleganger behaved very normal in comparison to other dopplegangers before the accident.

Sure they may wanted to re create something "refreshing" and "original" with an unknown evil but the movie itself has so many other movies inside it..

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[–] Otterpay 16 years ago

I really don't think the movie was quite as complicated as you guys would like to believe. To me it was just not a very good horror. Basically the revelation at the end is that she is the evil gina, but because of the car accident lost her memory. the problem lies in the fact that there is no real consistency in behavior of the other evil members of her family. and we are left wondering why these evil versions are killing off their real world counter parts. why they even exist. by the time the surprise ending came we as viewers don't really care.

all of you should see cashback though, brilliant film from the same director and absolutely nothing like this borefest.

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[–] motaalej 16 years ago

Anyone notice the dog in the car shop... it was a doppleganger dog, out of
the mirror and fighting the original one?

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[–] jimmytay_5a 16 years ago

Interesting interpretation, but there was a murder not being imagined by Gina - her brother's girlfriend was killed in her bathroom... which explains why her brother was heart-broken when he saw Gina acting cold as his girlfriend...

I don't think Gina's boyfriend was trying to kill her. If he was, he might have killed her right before she noticed at her back... He's not even trying to stop her in the attic, but just asking her what was she doing...

I think the scene she's throwing the x-ray away is just explaining that she's doing and will be doing all the "evidence eliminations" to cover her tracks...

I wonder why her doctors watching her leaving so weirdly thru window, maybe they discovered something wrong with her, or they have already become ones...???

Is everything started because of the broken glass on her father's birthday? Then what's the relation to that Korean woman??? and the two dogs??? Did they break their glasses too???

Can't stop thinking WHY WHY WHY after watching the movie... but it's kind of interesting though :)

Lastly can somebody explain to me the quote at the beginning of the movie???

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