SPOILER! The absurdities that ruin 'Shattered'
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dcavalli — 15 years ago(August 07, 2010 03:20 PM)
For the convenience of the plot, I'm guessing Dan's parents are dead, and he doesn't have any siblings to visit him (or they all hate him) and notice any changes that might indicate that it's someone else with his face. Blood relatives who saw him grow up might pick up things that friends don't. In 1991, DNA wasn't widely used, so the deception could last longer.
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mcfly-31 — 14 years ago(September 04, 2011 09:14 PM)
Everyone loves to claim "I figured it out!" like they want a medal or something. I saw it in theaters and remember NOT TRYING to figure it out. Just go with it. It's upon multiple viewings that it becomes more ludicrous. I'll take my turn:
- If Judith paid off Klein, why not remove all evidence of his services from Dan's work office? How did she even know of Klein? Who's dumb enough to not use a Kinko's fax machine and not her husband's?
- Dan borrows the maid's car so Judith won't noticing him following her? Wouldn't she also recognize the maid's car???? Why was Judith driving so erracitcally? What was the point of her speeding and cutting across lanes if there was nothing to be rushed to?
- Why is this toxic ship sitting there for 9 months?
- Why fire shots to "scare you"?; Judith is one hell of a stunt driver.
- The performances were fine, except for Kilmer, she sleptwalked through the whole thing. Though the New Year's flashback at the end was painfully overacted. Why they all decided to talk like they were in a soap opera is beyond me.
- The voice thingwell, you'd need a an extra 20 minutes of start to show us Merrick before the accident. Then you could alter his voice and say the accident effected his speech, I donno.
They didn't think we were stupid. It's called stretching credibility in order to make the film last. They knew of the countless fruck ups in the screenplay (Peterson adapted the book himself) but they just had to laugh it off to get to the big payoff. Which was great ("I'm holding my own dead body!"), but hardly enough to save all the contrivances.
"If I had ya where I wanted ya, they'd be pumpin your ass full of formaldehyde!"
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stayup_all_night — 14 years ago(September 10, 2011 09:57 AM)
It's a catch-22. You could make it more believable by showing his face more deformed and scarredbut that would totally give away the ending. They showed his face totally deformed at the beginning, so much so that it was surprising he ever looked normal again. Well I guess he really didn't. That's good enough for me - good movie!
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RSBonos — 13 years ago(August 14, 2012 11:38 PM)
The leap of faith could have worked if the protagonist had a mutilated face from the accident. No plastic surgery could have reconstructed someones real face like that, let alone transform it from a strangers face. This is in the same universe as Face/Off.
The film was still entertaining. -
htownsteve — 11 years ago(May 22, 2014 10:02 PM)
Wow. You folks sure have spent a lot of time and effort to deconstruct a movie that no-one has seen, will probably never see; and, never come HERE to read about it. Congratulations on wasting all that time!
I enjoyed the movie. Reminded me of a Hitchcock flick. The ending was no dumber than 80% of EVERY MOVIE I've ever seen.
Son, you can't polish a turd -
franzkabuki — 11 years ago(November 27, 2014 02:55 PM)
There probably are movies with a more ludicrous "twist" out there, but at the moment at least I can't think of any. The idea that a face as disfigured as Berenger's in the beginning can be restored to look as smooth, is unbelievable in itself, but the fact it's made to look like a spitting image of another man, is taking the bullsh-t onto an altogether outlandish level. And, yeah, then there is Hoskins - whose "comic relief" character was kind of out of place to begin with - with his supposed "aqualung" Shattered is very much a plot driven movie and thusly, despite some moody direction and reasonable amount of suspense before the final act, such utter absurdities DO matter - a great deal.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan