MovieChat Forums > Fear X (2003) Discussion > I don't get it -- Beware: Spoilers

I don't get it -- Beware: Spoilers

posted 21 years ago by Michegianni
4 replies | jump to latest

Ok, well firstly...

It seems that Harry was the one who killed his wife.

But, this cannot be so because there is a scene where the officer (whom harry meets) admits to it in front of 2 other colleagues.

Now, if his wife was murdered, and he meets the guy that murdered her, and he asks why and gets shot - what the hell was that crap in the end??

The other problem is that it's never known exactly what's real and what's not.

So anyway, the ending made no sense. When the officer next to Harry's bed said "there was no body - no crime was committed", what was he talking about?? The officer that Harry claimed he killed or Harry's wife??

They are the only 2 possible people - and even then which ever you rule out it STILL makes no sense... so WTF?!?

Harry breaks down and cries and throws away the papers with pictures he was collecting... does this mean he has given up?? or did he finally get the answer and didn't need the papers anymore??

Someone please explain this stuff it's getting on my nerves i'm gonna go back and watch it again.

[–] ture-4 21 years ago

Harry didn't kill his wife. You got this totally wrong ...
Try watching it again!

The only dream scenes is the ones where his wife (Claire) shows up in presence time. And there are signs showing that it's a "imaginairy-scene".

When Harry breaks down and cries, is because he has to let it go.
Hatres builds up inside him on his way up in the elevator - which is the first "red-scene". Then follows a scene with red water (blood) and then he's at the hospital. This scene tells us that he, himself tells the police that he killed somebody at the hotel. But there's no victim - so that's just part of his imagination, and what has happend we will never know.

Except the killing of his wife - which a guy states that he killed. So Harry didn't kill anybody (neither wis wife or the cop)

[–] robbiekhan 21 years ago

Quite an interesting film this, I like dit and wa hooked throughout

Perhaps the scene where the cop says there wa sno body is in relation to the statement made by the "captain" cop when the cop goes to see him about what to do when he finds out about a guy looking for his wife with a picture, where he talks about corrupt cops, did the cops clean up the blood from the elevator area that Harry had dripped when he got shot and from the elevator buttons? most likely otherwise at the hospital scene there would have been info on this

[–] timmermann 21 years ago

It's been a while since I saw the movie, so I'm sorry if I have remenbered something wrong but my opinion is..

Harry is so upsessed with cathing his wifes murderer that he begins to follow leeds, that are not really leeds, example when he goes into the stangers house and finds something that might be important, a picture i recall.

But as soon as Harry begins to follow these leeds/clues thats when things go wrong for Harry, and he, and the viewer, begin to imaging things.

The things he imaging is to make it easyer for him connecting the clues he believs that he finds, and when these imaginations start is of a puzzle to mee, and some might say that it all begins with hes breakin, when he finds the picture.

Also try to feel the movie, know the sounds wierd, but if you have seen David Linch before you might know where I'm getting at.

The sceen where Harry finds the picture, is not complete, it's like a timewarp, suddenly somthing a miss, I can't really explain what.

That feeling I had while wathing that scene, was only giving to me again when the meeting between the 3 cops, where held, where one of the cops confess doing something, something is wrong.

That's the feeling the rest of the film, something is wrong.

I believe that Harry Cries at the end of the movie because he has realized he has been chacing after a fatom ghost, and only imaging his clues.
The fight with the cop that killed hise wife never took place, the cop never existed, nither did the conspiracy behind.

Now having writen this I suddenly have the urge to go trough my dvd collection and watch this movie again, everything in it is top notch, directing, acting, filming, music and a story you can't get out of your head.

David Linch has a pupil, and his name is Refn.

If you havent seen Refn's to earlyer films Pusher, and Bleeder you should give then at try. However they are not as mystical as FearX, but they are as deep and unforgetelble as Harry could imagine.

[–] patrickknill 21 years ago

I'd agree that there's a fair bit of Lynch in this movie (especially those hotel interiors), but it's not Lost Highway. You can try to read it like Lost Highway if you want, but I think that would be a mistake. There is a narrative here. If, and that's a big if, Harry is imagining this second half of the movie, then Refn has failed to signpost it adequately. For me that makes the film a failure rather than the success I think it is. Harry cries at the end for any number of reasons. Let's not be cynical; a dead wife (and future child) is the main one. We haven't seen him cry before. I'd say his tears were in part from the understanding that solving the crime has allowed him to finally grieve as much as the solution hasn't really offered what he had hoped for.

I take it that Harry believes he kills the policeman, but that everything is covered up by the department. If he was never shot then why is he in the hospital bed? It's clear to him that there's nowhere left to go on this road. There's nothing left to solve in this mystery and so he goes back to the greater one that we're all faced with. Yes, he is chasing a phantom and that's the empty hope that his life can be returned to him as it was before. If he's not really in the hospital bed and he's never really in the hotel, etc... As I said, if Refn intends that as a revelation in the film, I don't think he's succeeded. As much as Hubert Selby is a great imaginative writer, his novels are of this world. There's horror enough here already. Making Harry mad or delusional, as opposed to wounded and suffering, really does lessen the impact of the story and Turturro's great perfomance.

I found it interesting that he didn't show the killing of the policeman because both Refn's Pusher, and especially Bleeder, were fairly brutal films at some points. Leaving that out and creating that enigma of whether Harry did kill him or whether he just passed out from blood loss and hallucinated the event... Let's hope Hollywood doesn't get to Refn too soon and he keeps on making films of this quality.