Spoilers! You've been warned!
So love, death and time are supposed to be actors an interesting idea but at the end it clearly implied they were supernatural after all. Problem is it showed them getting paid. So do supernatural beings need money or what?
Love, Death and Time were supernatural the entire time. They only appear to people when they choose.
Love, Death and Time are there not just to help Howard, but also Whit, Claire and Simon. And therefore, the only people who see them the entire movie are those 4 people.
The video where we see Howard talking to 'no one' is not because they removed the actors in post production. It's because the person he was talking to really was not visible to anyone but him.
The reason Love, Death and Time posed as actors was to fool Whit, Clair and Simon.
Love's job was to help Whit with his daughter.
Time's job was to help Claire with being a mom.
And Death's job was to prepare Simon for his death.
Hope this helps, but in short, they are 100% supernatural and only appeared to Howard, Whit, Claire and Simon.
Wait, just reread, slamnnation..so they were there to help the others, Whit, Claire, and Simon, so THOSE four people were real, and Time, Love, and Death were fake? But Death is, as mentioned in my above reply, the mother to Whit????
I knew that the four real mortal characters got help from the "spirits" (Brigitte, aka Whit'mother, aka "Time", Amy (Kiera Knightley) aka "Love", and "Death" - young actor Jacob Latimore, who's not a famous name to me, as the rather ironically, named, Raffi, considering the gentle celeb that he shared a name with character name' and actor...but was not really that aware of the interesting statuses you mention..again slannation, very interesting, the original poster, thank you as well! Enjoyed this saw it four times..very original, one of the most original movies out now..and I can't forget Michael Pena among the mortals in the film as "Simon", either (not familiar much with him,or a handful of the costars, but most familiar.)
"And that's SHOWBIZ--kid."-Roxie Hart.
PROFILE PIC:Courtney Thorne-Smith.
MAGIC=Sarah Silverman.
I started a thread about the video part - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4682786/board/thread/264870649
What's your opinion?
Makes sense, ty.
shareFor me, that's what brought it all together. Howard clearly needed some help dealing with emotional problems. What the other 3 learned was, don't we all? I really enjoyed this film, too bad I'm in the minority.
And to the poster above. Whits mother was not death. 2 seperate actresses played 2 different roles. Perhaps all old ladies look alike, but Helen Mirren is pretty well known.
1,Evilgnik: I WAS HOPING someone would've caught it! Yes, as Will Smith and Naomie Harris (the only other African American adult in the flick) walk off through New York's iconic - and much filmed - Central Park....under one of its many footbridges, we (and Will's Howard charcter) see the foursome (inlcuding Helen Mirren as Brigitte, and the others, includign (Edward Norton) Brigitte's son, and the others, of whom only Brigitte was the only one Howard hand't knwon, but I think you're slightly off since Norton, and (Kate Winslet's character) Claire also are shwon on the bridge. Anyway, they do appear, but when (after Will turns aorund and seems them on the park bridge after he and Naomie's Madeline, walk out,) they, as Madeline (Howard's new proud girlfriend and hopeful wife) turns around..presto! Gone!
2.Slamnation: VERY interesting surprise there..of course BOTH Whit AND his mother (again, initally, the one of the two characters there, that Howard hadn't known, thus making the "Time" masquerade completely working, plot hole, notwithstanding), were on the bridge, and involved in this...not to mention some of the others being the other circle of characters to stand with Howard, and act like they see only Howard and not the others..can't have this ghostly charade complete with characters being aware (even discussed in the bar scene with Claire (Kate Winslet) as to how to do the charade to help their friend.UPDATE,as of what is now New Year's Day! 1/1/2017: I just caught the other characters on the entry:
Simon,played by Michael Pena,(one of Howard's friends, Hispanic with the glasses) and forgot Amy-played by the only one of these three who's a well knwon star Kiera Knightley, (Love), and young Jacob Lattimore played by -Raffi (as someone who remembers the 1980s kids singer Raffi, as I mention below in my next post before the New Year's rivision), I find an amusing irony in the choise of character name)
(Death)
Y'know, a couple of things, one that I touched on. This film came in a year when we've been losing all generations of celebrties, though some were close to 100, yet every adult character in the film by story's end and in real life currently, even the oldest-Mirren (Brigitte),are most ironically still alive.
Brigitte isn't really address but she's played by a high profile actress, Helen Mirren, so "who's the character's name", not "who's that actress", are the fun question.
Also, as mentioned, Whit is her son, and Howard knows him but not her.
It's rather suddenly dropped on us that she's both an actress and then next scene in their apartment or what havre you, she's her mother (NOT revealed in the previous, introductory scene with Mirren's character>)
"And that's SHOWBIZ--kid."-Roxie Hart.
PROFILE PIC:Courtney Thorne-Smith.
MAGIC=Sarah Silverman.
They don't need money. Even Time alluded to it when he got "paid". Remember his comments anout excepting that money in that poor erea? They hadnto keep the ruse. Perhaps there's a deleted scene in wich he gives it to someone there. Thereby solving another problem. Perhaps these angelic creatures have to micromanage things in order to help more than one person. Think about it. Coming into Howard's life earlier wouldn't have given them the opportunity help the others. Yknow like the adage is. "God works in mysterious ways"
I am the Alpha and the Omoxus The Omoxus and the Omega
The whole thing with the bridge leaves one really pining for a sequel. :)
shareThat's not a plot hole as it would make sense accepting the money to keep their ruse up.
However what I believe to be a plot hole is the following:
So, the three are really Love, Death and Time, meaning not real people. I guess we can take it at face value that they truly can make themselves seen when and to whomever they want, just like Helen Mirren suggested. So what was going down in the scenes in public when the three confront Howard and the p.i. is filming it?
A) They were only visible to Howard: That is not possible as that would mean there wouldn't be anything to edit out of the videos and Howard's colleagues would be clued in to the supernaturality of the three beings way before the end of the movie.
B) They were visible to everyone and later edited out: I guess this is what the movie suggests, but I have problems with that scenario as there clearly are scenes where the p.i. is filming from behind the supernatural being and that would be a really tough task to edit it accordingly, wouldn't it? Plus, there would have to be some reaction, at any point, by some passer-by, to the Love/Death/Time characters, as they were causing quite a scene. Howard must have noticed something.
C) They were visible to Howard and the p.i. (thus, also visible on the videos and later edited out) but not to anyone else:
See the first half of point B) plus the fact that in that case there would have been way more reaction by people around Howard if he was screaming at nothing, especially on the subway! I mean okay, it is the NY subway, but come on, is something like this that common there? ;)
I don't know, to me none of these scenarios make that much sense. However, I like the overall idea, mostly the fact that Love/Death/Time did in fact not only help Howard, but even more so helped the three people who "hired" them in the first place. And I have to admit I did not see the other twist coming. I have to give kudos to a movie that can pull that off nowadays. ;)