Q+A about the movie (caution: LONG post + SPOILERS galore ahead)
The movie seems like a right mess but you're positive it's at least trying to convey something. Or at least some people say that it does. Darned if you knew what that is. You could leave it at that and get on with your life but something about it just niggles at you. Which explains why you're here.
This thread is actually a spin-off from the Awful Movie one when a single user (not the OP) who didn't like the movie all that much found it within himself or herself to ask questions about it anyway. I applaud this person. Which is why I'm starting this thread just for them. I guess positive things do come out of negative ones. Anyway, I promised them answers, be they fact or merely my interpretations, so here they are.
First, I'm going to quote the last few posts of the mini thread we started in that other Awful Movie thread:
nyrunner101: Can you explain something to me? The initial attack and murder of the Oriental student was stopped by the appearance of Bruce's wife. Was that fantasy or did that happen? Then, at the end Bruce dresses in drag, the same clothes his wife wore in the first scene. Why? Where did Bruce get those clothes? How did he know what clothes to wear? Was this homophobe actually a guy who liked to dress in drag? Totally confused about that turn of events unless it was Bruce, dressed in drag, who witnessed the murder. This would explain a lot of things, his homophobia and the fact that he knew who murdered the student despite doing absolutely no detective work at all. And who was that other blonde woman with the kid? Did I miss something?
mudpole: I thought he dressed up in drag, because his mind was so far gone. He was clinging to get his wife back. That in his mind, he believed dressing up as her, keeps her close to him.
The other blonde women was the wife of the man he tried to save with CPR.
nyrunner101: Yes, but didn't you find it interesting that he chose the same clothes his wife wore when she witnessed the murder? How about this? Among Bruce's many "problems", both real and imagined, is his cross-dressing fetish. He likes to dress in women's clothes and wander the streets of Glasgow. One night, while dressed as a woman, he witnesses the murder of the Oriental student. That "woman" witness we see is not his wife but Bruce. If this is true it really does explain alot, like the fact that he does not investigate the murder. Why should he? He already knows who the murderers are. Then, towards the end of the film, he dresses up again ln women's clothes and takes to the streets. The murderers see him and recognize him and that is why they pick him up with the intention of beating and killing him.
I still do not understand why he was so mean to the guy he considers his best friend, drugging and otherwise humiliating him, nor do I understand how a man with such obvious problems would even be considered for promotion, unless, of course, this supposed promotion is just another figment of his drug and alcohol addled mind.
However, the more I think and write about it, the more I see that there was more to the story than I originally thought.
Here are my answers to your questions, nyrunner101, based on the movie:
1. The murder happened, and the goons were interrupted by Bruce pretending to be Carol. So you nailed that one on the head right there.
2. He was dressed as his wife because his rather skewed memories of her were one of the only things he had left of her, and doing it was the only way he could remain close to her. I don't think he's really doing it because he had a fetish for it buuuut I could be wrong there. I don't even think he's as much of a homophobe and misogynist as he seemed to want people to think he was. He just wanted to mainly prove to himself that he's a Real Winner in Life™ by putting others down. Homosexuals and women, among others, all seemed like easy targets so why not?
3. I don't really think it matters where he got those clothes from but I reckon they were either left behind by his wife (ex-wife?) or he bought them based on how he imagined her to look in his mind. She didn't seem that much of the teasin' bombshell-type from what we see of her actual person.
4. And yes, that's exactly why he knew who the perps were, seeing as he's the missing blond witness.
5. Mary (the blond lady with the dead husband and young son) is a plot device to show that underneath it all, Bruce still had an ounce of humanity within him. With her, it gives people the notion that there might be a glimmer of hope in salvation for Bruce after all, if she were to become his saving grace later on.
6. He got close to Bladsey via the freemasonry for his money (the guy's apparently loaded) to help support his drug habit. From what I can gather, that was all there is to it, at first. And Bladsey's patsy-like demeanor made him an easy test target for his bigger machinations. But Bladsey turned out to be a good friend (and not to mention his only one), and for that, Bruce had shown bouts of hesitation and remorse for the things he'd done or wags about to do to the poor guy, wavering slightly with indecision, but his mood swings always led him to keep slipping down the path of self-destruction instead.
7. As for how he could possibly hope to get promoted, well, the guy did have the credentials. As was mentioned in the movie, he wasn't always the way he was. But I guess part of the reason he went about sabotaging his colleagues in the first place was because somewhere within himself, he fully recognized what an utter mess he was (so there's no way others wouldn't either) and the only way he could win that promotion was to make others appear even less eligible than him. And the whole reason he wanted it to begin with was because of the delusion that it'd get him his wife back. But we all know how that worked out for him. In his downward spiral, he became his own biggest saboteur. He did everything he could to avoid being the victim but ended up being the biggest victim of his own designs (which started when he chose coke over his prescribed medication). Either way he wasn't going to win so, as despicably bottomfeeding as the character is, movie!Bruce is truly a man to be pitied rather than hated, in my opinion.
So that's what I have for you. The movie seemed to have clicked with quite a number of audiences the first time they saw it but mind you, I wasn't one of them. I was about as lost as you are after the first time seeing the movie. I knew I didn't hate it but I also didn't know what to make of it. I didn't exactly hate Bruce but I didn't know why. I knew that he's done a lot of hateful things which should make him a hateful person but the truth is, I didn't know what to feel for him at all. What I did know was the reason I couldn't properly make sense of it was more than likely because I missed a lot of the points (which culminates to the main one) the film was trying to convey so I watched it multiple times to gain better understanding. Also, explanations provided in interviews by the cast and crew helped a little. Since you only saw it that one time, it's completely understandable why you're lost. Sometimes I wonder if the people who gave it bad reviews wouldn't have been more forgiving if they had given the movie at least one more go.
Anyway, I hope this clears things up for you a bit.
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