Did anyone NOT see it coming?

Apparently, you missed the point. The movie is deliberately made in that way to make it painfully, explicitly obvious to the audience that the whole thing is a setup.

- Early in the movie it is revealed that Virgil is not exactly a pillar of honesty. It's painfully clear that we are being prepared to see him getting his comeuppance.

- The moment when Virgil find the first piece of the meachanism is deliberaterly played in a very primitivised way to make it clear to us that the piece was planted deliberately. Scenes involving the discovery of other pieces are also shot in the same simplistic way.

- The "amazing" discovery of the clockwork author's name inscribed in a gear, revealed by a "special fluid" (!). And then it suddenly turns out that Virgil researched the same guy in his youth. Again, the scene is played with intentional bombastic fakeness specifically for the audience.

- I won't even mention the actorship of the fake "Claire".

- Etc etc etc.

Apparently the movie authors intentionally attempt to emphasize the contrast between us (the audience) to whom everything is very obvious, and the old guy blinded by love in the movie world (who is completely oblivious to what's going on).

I suspected by the first quarter to third of the movie that it was all a con - too many characters who were a little shady. It was clear Billy was resentful from the beginning and acting less intelligent than he was and clearly sick of Virgil's condescending attitude.

But I wasn't sure if the con was going to be that they were going to get Virgil to buy something of Claire's or some other con regarding the things in the house. I figured somehow he was either going to lose his reputation or his money.

I knew the con wouldn't be only about the money but destroying Virgil's ego - so it could have gone a few ways to accomplish that end.

Him losing all the art wasn't really that original but it was fine since it included the poetic revenge motive as well.

Virgil had hints all over of what would happen, all the comments about forgery and how anything can be faked, even love.

They were toying with him - it was "duping delight" - he should have known.


What hump? 

No, I have to say I didn't. I'm always doing something else when I'm watching TV and that helped. As I mostly listened, little thoughts would pop up. Gee, for someone who wants to hide that's a pretty big and obvious hole in the all. Gee she sure recovered might quick. Hmmm that dwarf's ability is going to play in somewhere, but how. Uh-oh, he put his password to that room right in front of her. It was only when I heard her say, I don't want to sell anymore items, that I say, oh darn it's a scam.

Now I have to actually keep my eyes on the screen because it is a beautiful film and watch it again.

While I felt really hurt for him, it really came down to a scammer getting scammed by a scammer. I would like he could let the paintings go. They didn't get into his bank account and he had sex (and "love") from a beautiful woman. Memories he should live with for the rest of his life.

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Maybe I'm just not too bright, but I didn't see it coming. Well ... I did see some of it coming but not all of it.

Late in the film where Oldman has gone away on his last auction before retirement, I predicted that Claire was going to be gone when he got home. I thought it was going to be simply the case that even though she had earlier appeared to be reciprocating his affections, that in his absence she would have weirded out on him and suddenly decided not be continue the relationship. Heck, comparatively normal women do that! I'm sorry to say as a guy I've been on the receiving end of that more than once.

So I thought it was just going to be a theme of how mercurial women can be in their feelings. The whole story of Claire and her agoraphobia and her family history was pretty elaborate, so it didn't occur to me that the whole thing would have been a sham. Seems if they just wanted to take his valuable paintings, there would have been a simpler way. Then again, I guess it had to be pretty complex for Oldman to get pulled into the drama. He would have seen through something simpler. So it could be argued either way I guess.

I saw it coming, just didn't know HOW it was coming. And the unfolding story was anything but tedious for me.

Thanks to Rush's superb portrayal of a bad person who could be pitied, I wanted two people with lots of emotional baggage to get a new life together, "and live happily ever after."

But then I came back to reality and just watched the art auctioneer proceed to his doom.

For me, the final justice and redemption for all these sordid characters would have been to have the swindlers stealing fake art, and the Rush character having a second secret vault with the original art.

After the first 15 minutes, I found the rest of the movie tedious, just waiting to see if, maybe just maybe, something NOT completely expected would happen.

I saw it coming, but it didn't ruin anything for me, because the film is about so much more than just the theft.