Think Pictures

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

Think Pictures are very special. They are the kind of movie that you walk out of and immediately head to a bar or restaurant so you can sit and talk about what the heck it all means. Se7en, The Sixth Sense, Mulholland Dr., Vertigo, Artificial Intelligence: A.I., Fahrenheit 9/11, Eyes Wide Shut, JFK and The Usual Suspects are all good examples of Think Pictures. They don't necessarily have to have a twist ending but usually involve some sort of conspiracy. They also always seem to ask more questions than they answer.

I've seen two great Think Pictures in the last month, one I like, the other I love. Let's start with the former because it is in theaters now.

Cache is a French film about a well-to-do couple, Georges and Anne, that starts receiving mysterious packages on their doorstep. The first is a videotape of their home, secretly recorded from up the street. It runs around 2 hours and nothing much happens except cars drive by and we see the couple and their son leave the house to start their days. It is not an overt threat to the family, but it is obviously threatening. Additional tapes begin to arrive. Some are of their house, others seem to be clues about who is responsible. Georges begins to suspect someone in his past is behind the plot. His search for the "stalker" is the heart of the movie.

Cache (which is French for "hidden") starts out as a gripping story of paranoia and guilt. Then, with about 45 minutes left, it loses its hold on logic and practically discards the very thing that is driving the movie: who is sending the tapes? Now, I'm not completely against a movie going out to left field. David Lynch films often do this (as in the aforementioned Mulholland Dr.), but at least his films announce this possibility by being almost aggressively strange from the start. Cache isn't like this. It is cool and controlled and you definitely feel like you are in the hands of a master filmmaker. (The best works of Hitchcock and DePalma produce this same feeling of contentment.)

In the end, I think one of two things happened. Either the filmmaker simply didn't care to wrap up his film with a satisfying conclusion or he simply couldn't. Either way, it feels like a rip-off. Stephen King is notorious for this sort of thing; he comes up with the best set-ups for stories and then can't figure out how to end them properly. ("It" was a giant spider? That whole Hand of God ending to "The Stand?") I don't mind the arty idea of a movie having no answers, that it is really all about Georges' past guilt, I just resent it here. A movie with a set-up this good is like a promise to the viewer. If you go along with it, I promise you a satisfying answer. Cache doesn't deliver this even though it has a "twist" ending of sorts. The last shot of the film is of a large group. The shot holds for several minutes (like others earlier in the film) and we see two characters meet. What are they talking about? Were they behind the whole thing? The wife and I had at least a half-dozen different theories but in the end there is no answer. After much discussion, we agreed Cache was good movie that could've been great. At least that's what I thought. The wife doesn't have the patience for this sort of stuff.

The other Think Film I saw recently was a movie from last year. Primer, the top prize-winner at 2004's Sundance Film Festival, is without a doubt my favorite time travel movie of all time. At 78 minutes, it packs more questions and possibilities into its story than most Hollywood epics. It is the story of two engineers who accidentally invent a box that can be used to travel back in time. First they start by going back and investing in the stock market using tomorrow's information. Then they become more ambitious and begin to try alter the future. Pretty soon the men stop trusting each other and there are multiple copies of each of them existing simultaneously, all with their own agendas. The film is admittedly difficult, especially on the first viewing. But when you start to think about it (and this is where watching it with someone is essential) the more the puzzle starts to piece itself together. There is also a terrific message board on the films official site full of theories and hypothetical timelines. Primer is a stunning work that Kubrick would've loved. I can't think of much more praise than that.

Both these films provided hours of discussion and friendly argument between the wife and I. I know I sound down on Cache, but I really hope I've piqued the interest of some of you. In all fairness, I'm in the minority on this film. The vast majority of critics have loved it. (Roger Ebert just awarded it four stars.) But if I had to recommend a Think Film for everyone that I bet no one has seen, run out and get Primer. It will absolutely be a movie I watch and Think about for years to come.