MovieChat Forums > Finder's Fee (2023) Discussion > The most flawed movie ever made?

The most flawed movie ever made?


How does a movie like this ever get made without being questioned along the way by the actors, director, crew, etc.? Does a writer intentionally write a screenplay containing flaws for a reason and expect it to make the big screen as is? These aren't plot twists and this isn't a satire. This is a very captivating mystery drama and things are supposed to make sense at the end (mostly). It's not a question of being fooled as one poster seems to think. There isn't enough room on this board to list all the flaws but I'll list a few here anyway.
My first premise is that James E. Jones is the real Avery. Who else would know about the two unpaid traffic tickets whose status had reached outstanding warrant level, a fact Avery was wondering about himself? How could an imposter show up at the apartment within about 30 minutes after the phone call to Victor and not assume that the wallet would have a picture id? Who else would really know the date of birth of one of the two grand daughters and know the winning lottery numbers that were only announced moments earlier?
With that in mind, Avery was out the door without a peep until the cops pushed him back in. He behaved most of the time like he knew his numbers came up, but when he first looks in the wallet ever so briefly, he says "It's mine alright" and it's intact, let me call the wife and comfort her that the credit cards are there. No mention of the missing picture id driver's license. Like someone stole that and left the credit cards and lottery ticket? These are not twists. These are ridiculous notions.
Tep and his fiance don't kiss as she leaves the apartment?
Tep goes into the garbage to get the lottery numbers written on a piece of paper before he finds the winning ticket on the night he's playing Last Man Standing. Why? What was so important that he had to break the vow amongst his best friends that night?
Then he just tosses the paper with the numbers on the counter in plain view.
The cards on the table had a red backing but the box in the bathroom was blue. Is that normal?
Tep goes into the kitchen sink to grab a spoon during the dart game. What for, anybody? And what was the deal with the photograph? Who could tell who's who in that photo?
Quiggly hits the redial button when he pressures Tep to call for the numbers, despite his claim that he was calling family the last time that phone was in use? And Tep doesn't even look at the lottery tickets (five of them) but proclaims "No winners".

That's just a start. And I loved the movie!

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[deleted]

First of all,the one thing that I've noticed is that just about everyone who has posted here liked the movie, myself included.
Secondly, I'm SICK AND TIRED OF ALL THE COMPLAINERS WHO ARE SICK AND TIRED OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE BOTHERED BY PLOT FLAWS in a movie like this.This movie is based on a true story. It's not a comic book character movie or a futuristic science fiction film. It is supposed to make sense and be flawless, especially since it is not fiction (mostly). I mean, it's New York City, and not Springfield, Homer. It's sometime in the 2000's, not Back to the Future IV. What makes you people think that it's OK for the writer of this screenplay to just use his/her literary license and throw in any meaningless behavior.And by that term, in the history of the world, no female at that stage of her relationship, would leave that guy's apartment without looking for that reassurance kiss from her chosen spouse-to-be.NEVER.
I watch a movie like this looking for possible clues as to how it will all come out at the end. Doesn't everyone? I'm upset because I was FOOLED? I don't think so!!!

One poster, Ffejhtims, wrote it best in another post when he said"Twists for the sake of twists truly mar the whole project".
Very poignant, I must say.

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[deleted]

I really don't care..I liked the movie I didn't really see anything wrong with it, but maybe I'm dumb or I just don't read into sh*t as much as you people.

Your pale body has that graveyard charm

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For the love of GOD lol. I think you should be a little more open minded with the plot, dude. Did it ever occur to you that Avery had that phone number in his wallet for a reason? They knew eachother! He must be a brother in law or something which would at least explain family knowledge (ie. the ticket and birthday). Quigley didn't HAVE to look at the tickets because he already knew which was which, and OBVIOUSLY didn't want the winner to be known by the others. And the picture? it wasn't important what was in the picture, more so the effect on the character. And the cards in the bathroom? LIGHTING lol think before you type man, I mean, I'm not knowcking you or anything, I apologize if it seems that way but you need to be more open minded.

The ONLY "flaws" I think were in the film at all were

1.in the beginning, when he picks the wallet up off the street, he does it with the wrong hand. (left hand in the close-up, right hand in the 3 1/4 shot).

2. He orders a pizza in the quick shots before the guys start coming, and the pizza never comes. (ALTHOUGH it is aguable due to the lockdown).

kee doke?

And yes, it was a great movie.

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Also at issue is when Ryan Reynolds' character hits redial on the phone...which, if you were paying attention, should've been a major hint that his character called to find out the winning number (even though he said he was calling his daughter). In fact, I would suspect that's why Jones' character kept using the phone, then conveniently hung up before anyone got too close--he was calling for the numbers, too.

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i hear ya to a point, man....but he's right about the cards. no way, no how can ANY lighting change red cards to blue. That's just silliness. maybe pink to red or yellow to brown, but no light in the world could do that....it's a continuity issue period. but THANK YOU for the laugh

kee doke?

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LOL...possibly green lighting??

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James Earl Jones was obviously Victor. Think about it.

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yeah obviously? lol are you kidding? I'm sure that James Earl Jones was supposed to be "suprise" Victor but that doesn't make any sense either for a couple reasons. FIRST why would Victor (James Earl Jones) tell his brother in law/cousin (i can't remember which) Avery that someone called him saying that they found his lost wallet? Victor wouldn't call Avery at all if he had planned to claim the wallet as Avery. Why risk his brother in law showing up there at the same time? Why tell him at all? Doesn't make sense at all. NEXT, "victor" (James Earl Jones) was about to leave the apartment without the 6 million dollar ticket that he supposedly came there to claim as Avery. The only thing that stopped him was the police "lockdown" that occurred and i'm pretty sure that wasnt staged to happen at that exact moment to get him to stay. Let's say that he was going to find some other reason to stick around, how in the world was he gonna get that winning ticket? How did he know that these particular people play a card game for the tickets? LASTLY, if he was Avery's brother in law Victor, obviously they were close since he had his phone number in his wallet so there doesnt seem to be any family feuding (especially if Victor informed Avery that someone found his lost wallet even though he was planning to get it for himself) so why wouldnt' Victor think that Avery, his friend and brother in law wouldn't share the wealth with the entire family? Most families do! ALSO, if Victor's brother Avery played those numbers all the time and Victor checked the winning numbers and realized he won then wouldnt Avery after Victor claims the winning ticket be highly suspicious that DUH Victor stole it and probably his wallet from him? No license or form of photo ID in the wallet either was pretty convienient too!!!

YIKES yeah, a movie isnt' good with plot holes like that.

AND even if this Victor guy was unrelated to Avery, perhaps a bus rider who talked to Avery a lot and knew about the numbers he picked and that he lost his wallet that day IT WOULDNT MAKE SENSE THAT AVERY KNEW TIB OR WHATEVER HIS NAME WAS HAD HIS WALLET UNLESS VICTOR THE GUY WHO GOT THE MESSAGE TOLD HIM, WHICH AGAIN MAKES NO SENSE THAT VICTOR WOULD TELL HIM IF HE WAS PLANNING TO STEAL THE TICKET.

SO YEAH, BAD MOVIE.

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It is possible that james earl jones called the real avery right before he checked the winning lottery numbers just as the main character did and didn't come up with the plan to steal the wallet from his cousin/brother until after the phone call. Maybe the real avery told james earl jones about his lost winning ticket when he got the phone call. As far as james e jones knowing that there wasnt a picture ID in the wallet goes... Maybe since he was a relative and obviously a close friend of the real avery then he knew that the ID had been lost previously and wouldnt be in there. Then he just made up the story with the cop when he pretended to not know it was missing. The first post on this flaw topic mentioned how they hit redial on the phone to call for the lottery numbers and said that was stupid because someone used the phone after then. I think Ryan Reynolds hit redial because he had just dialed the number minutes before when he found the card on the floor in the bathroom. He wanted to make sure the ticket was a winner before he helped Tib win.

I am sure that the writer of this movie thought about these possible flaws while he was making the movie and wanted to leave it up to the audience to decide. Sometimes explaining a movie in the very end takes away some of the affect. For example, in movies like Fight Club at the end they show a bunch of flash backs on stuff that was already in the movie. I'm not saying that this was a bad thing, but try watching a movie with a twisted ending like Fight Club a second time after you seen the twisted ending and you will see the little clues that are given. Without an explaination in this movie, it leaves everyone to use their imagination. Which is exactly what we are all doing.

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Okay just watched this film and came on here to see just how many people were bitching about it and hey gotta say i did kinda dig the movie i'm a huge ryan reynolds fan so had to pick the film up in the bargain bucket when i saw it.
main thing that's bugging me on here is the cards, how does the pack change colour, they were different packs!!! did you guys not notice the numerous comments about the multiple packs of cards throughout the film and how they all look the same with the exception of the covers, ryan saying that he's going to deal from a NEW pack and then he picks the pack that was in the bathroom!
the real avery at the end said he heard the message left on victors number, he never said victor passed on the message or anything.

meh was gonna try clear up some other stuff but i can't remeber now i've lost my train of thought and im all tired, toodles

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"The first post on this flaw topic mentioned how they hit redial on the phone to call for the lottery numbers and said that was stupid because someone used the phone after then. I think Ryan Reynolds hit redial because he had just dialed the number minutes before when he found the card on the floor in the bathroom. He wanted to make sure the ticket was a winner before he helped Tib win."

That's exactly what I've been trying to say all along. These people on here just don't listen.

Also, if I had to choose between a movie with plot holes and a post with spelling errors, I'd pick the movie. Fix your *beep* up, people!

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"The first post on this flaw topic mentioned how they hit redial on the phone to call for the lottery numbers and said that was stupid because someone used the phone after then. I think Ryan Reynolds hit redial because he had just dialed the number minutes before when he found the card on the floor in the bathroom. He wanted to make sure the ticket was a winner before he helped Tib win."

Yep, and that is made clear by the fact that he starts to spins the phone in his hands, his tell when he has 'good cards'...

Oh, and James Earl is NOT the real Avery, the real Avery wouldn't laugh in the end leaving with the ticket he almost lost. he would be relieved. And he would certainly NOT laugh at the fact that next to the ticket he also got to keep that thing that Tepper 'gave' him out of pity. he would have given that back, out of pity, after Tepper's great deed. Right now, he leaves laughing hard about getting away with that.

There are more clues, he knew there was 'something' with parking tickets, something as in not knowing exactly what, or not willing to tell the cop, because he didn't want his cover blown.

Peeps, it was his brother ok? Avery told his brother the story of the lost ticket, that's how he knew.
And because of the search warrant, Avery wouldn't get there by car but took public transportation, which would delay his arrival. His brother took advantage of that, lied to him he had to go somewhere and went over there. Some variation of that, i presume.

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about the cards: oh gosh, so painfully obvious (good call on the packs!)....

Doesn't everyone have like 5 packs of cards...loose some, buy another pack.

Maybe he simply put a complete pack of red cards (w/e color) into a blue PACK:)

Great point about Avery possibly not receiving the message and hence, making the story-line very plausible.

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If I ever get cast for Survivor, I'll be sure to ask Jeff.

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[deleted]

My family surmised that the fake Avery was a co-worker of the real Avery with whom Avery shared his good news. I can tell you the children and grandchildren names and ages of people with whom I work and that they play the family's birthdates on the lotto. Avery obviously came from work to Tep's apartment - the fake Avery got off work first and came an claimed the wallet.

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JEJ was the real Avery. Remember one of the friends (the blond) said he recognized him from when he came and spoke, as a firefighter, to his dad's kid-camp. And before someone dismisses that as "well to white people, all blacks look alike", remember he told JEJ that he looked familiar right when he walked in, before there was ANY talk of him being a fireman, lottery ticket, etc. JEJ was the fireman and the real Avery.

That being said, I can't explain who the "2nd Avery" is.

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Yep, 2nd Avery arrived late because he went out to laminate a photo ID with someone elses name and the transit company he doesn't actually work for on it.

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