cruel film (Major Spoiler)

I had the very same feeling at the end of this movie when I watched it last night. After having had 24 hours to reflect on some of the details, it seems that the other characters each presented Oldman with an idea that could have prompted him to realize the error of his ways and taken measures to correct them.

The mechanic guy point blank asked Virgil if he would choose Claire or the Automaton which should have prompted Virgil to have a discussion with Claire about the robot. And if he thought that the relationship was going to be permanent, Claire's and his own wealth would have been shared rendering any potential gain from not telling Claire about the robot a moot point. Billy went to Virgil after the Valiente Forgery mishap and told him how bad he felt and that he just had to repair the damage to their friendship - Virgil should have recognized that Billy was (theoretically) a true friend and apologized for all the years of belittling his paintings. As for the mechanic, I think that he never really did care about Virgil to begin with - Virgil was always just someone to be taken advantage of to the mechanic and the mechanic also knew that Virgil would seize opportunities to take advantage of others. Sorry if this isn't as succinct as it seemed it my mind, but I think you will understand the points.

If Virgil was in fact a moral man, he would have corrected the mistakes that he had made when presented with the opportunities to correct them. Instead, he never told Claire about the robot on his own or after receiving an external prompt, he never apologized to Billy for being an ass and not appreciating his paintings at any level, even after Billy seemingly made a gesture to demonstrate the level of friendship they had, and Virgil should have never trusted the mechanic, someone who took advantage of Virgil - he should have recognized he was being taken advantage of and kept it a business relationship. Some might say that Virgil needed the mechanic's experience with women, but if Virgil actually had as high esteem for women as he claimed, he would not have taken advantage of Claire's automaton. I think that this film was very much about karma indeed.

I did feel bad for Virgil at the end, and I would never condone that level of cruelty, but at the same time, it seems that Virgil reaped precisely what he sewed and furthermore was given opportunities by everyone to correct his behavior before the con reached its final stages. A more appropriate "punishment" for Virgil may have been simply to expose his misdeeds...but because of the underlying karma theme a reasonable punishment wasn't enough - he had to be given a taste of his own medicine - they just chose to dump the whole bottle of medicine down his throat and make off with a priceless collection too. I wonder what the groundskeeper received as payment...because he had to be a part of the con as well; and I wonder how much either of the mechanic's girlfriends were involved. I wonder how the emotions of the viewers at the end of the film would have differed if Virgil would have been just slightly more suspicious of any of the people that tricked him.

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Relax. Not everyone goes into a mental breakdown after being cheated. There are plenty of fish in the sea. Yes, one will become devastated for a while, then recover and then chase other fish in the sea. All is well.

Yes, the cruelty of it bothered me. That it was done by stealing his heart. I can understand that he was a con artist himself. Still, especially cruel to lure him into falling in love, and she, and the young guy that he knew well and trusted, did it to him.

Yes, me too, i just watched it. I feel unpleasant feeling too, but remember Virgil does an unfair action, he conspires with Billy to get the paintings he wants, but still it's hard to deal with it indeed.

Why do people seem to think when someone does wrong, they only deserve equal wrong in return? Pay 'em back with interest!!

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!