I'm glad I got this movie at a major discount. What was going on?
Matchstick Men was about grifting, this was about family problems, am I wrong?
But there were great performances, wiritng, but I had absolutley no idea what was going on.
What does Anjelica Houston do for the mob?
Someone help me to like this movie. I give it a 5, why should I give it a 9?
This movie is about survival. Honestly. You're supposed to be watching the interactions among the characters. Its not about some big con. Its not a plot driven movie. Its about characterization and what makes us tick, what we're willing to do in order to survive, what we're willing to do for the people we care about.
Lilly is the representation of what we do to survive. Money is what makes Myra tick. Roy refused to give his mother the money because he wanted a different life for her.
Its not like there's some big twist at the end. There's no shocker. It's life. Plain and simple. Life seen from different angles. Life viewed and lived in different capacities.
A lot of people find this movie to be boring because they expect an in-your-face plot. But once you get past that and are able to accept this movie for what it is, then its something to appreciate.
The book is also just as ambiguous. You really don't know what you're getting until you finish it and really think about what it means.
Most people tread through life not really knowing what's going on. And when something happens, like the ending of this movie, then hindsight is 20/20. You begin to understand the interactions between certain characters, you understand Myra's plight, you understand Roy's inept way of dealing with his feelings regarding his mother, etc. Only until something drastic happens in life do we truly understand what was going on. And I think that's what this movie is about.
I feel that this movie is about a lot of other things too but that's a whole other subject and then I'll get into detail and really sound like a weirdo. haha.
Angelica places bets for the bookie - he is dependent on the odds at the racetrack to pay off his bets (to those who bet through him instead of at the track). If he gets a run on a longshot, he sends someone (Angelica) to the track to lay money on that horse (in case it wins) for two reasons: 1) It brings the odds down - the more money placed on a horse, the lower the odds thus he pays out less, and 2) he now has money on the horse so if it wins, he collects and uses that to pay off the people who bet through him. Pretty straight-forward, eh?
shareThanks so much for that explanation. I am not into gambling, so I would have never figured out exactly what she was doing, even tho I love the film and have seen it several times. I wondered why she kept looking at the board - it seemed to govern what she did, but I didn't know why. Well, you learn something every day! Thanks again!
shareShe was looking at the tote board which showed the current odds for each horse in the race, and also how much money was bet on each horse for win, place or show. She's checking to see if the money she's put down on the longshots causes the odds on that horse to go down enough to be in Bobo's "aceptable" range.
Actually, this sort of thing doesn't go on at major tracks any more. With simulcasting at major tracks it's only at small tracks that a single person could affect the odds like that. The betting pools are usually just too large at bigger tracks. Moreover, if you have winnings over a certain amount you've gotta sign for the and the track deducts withholding - hardly the kind of paper trail Bobo wants!
The reason I didn't care for this movie (or at least the ending) is because the movie feels like it's building toward something, then fails to deliver.
The movie acts like a plot-driven film with a character twist, but fails to deliver on its plot buildup.
I enjoyed most of this movie, but I found the ending to be extremely underwhelming, and would've appreciated it if the movie presented itself in the beginning more as a character piece instead of another plot-driven grift movie like The Sting.
Quite simply enough, I liked the movie, but I don't think the ending fits, so I will be giving this a 6/10 (before the ending I would've given it an 8/10).
For me, it was always about the characters, not about some big grift/scam unfolding.
We're being shown a little of the lives of these pathetic, greedy, and desperate people.