I don't mind twist-endings. Twist endings are nice. I kind of had enough of Shyamalan, but in general, I don't mind a twist. That said, I think there is a difference between A Twist Ending and The Movie Lying To You. I felt lied to by this movie. When the writer has to have the protagonist withhold information from us, the audience, in order to create a twist, that is not clever writing, that is just cheating. It is just blatant dishonesty.
shareIt doesn't lie - we see the story through a different perspective. This is actually a pretty old dramatic device. The protagonist seems to be one thing as we watch from a third person view; then at the end we learn more (usually through monologuing or flashbacks) and find out the protagonist isn't who we thought they were.
When done well, as in Slevin, we feel nicely surprised. There are other movies that are more clumsy or ham-fisted about it, and that's when it feels like a ripoff. But this is all subjective - not everyone has the same perspective on this kind of "twist."
I completely disagree with your assessment. Not saying you are wrong; I just had a different take. I thought it was made abundantly clear from the git-go that there was a twist coming. Not what the twist was, of course, but to be on the look-out for a twist coming. The whole "mistaken identity" thing was so tidy and contrived that I felt like the producers were winking at me, saying "hey dude, there's a twist coming. Can you figure it out?"
That's playing fair with the audience, in my book. And I enjoyed it.
I actually love this kind of story telling, when done well. Different versions of the Unreliable Narrator has been used for years and I think it takes more effort as a writer.
You have to make sure the protaginist never directly lies to the audience, only to other characters, but instead use omission and midirection without arrousing any suspicion of them. Also their behaviour and the plot still has to make sense even after the reveal, which I think is much harder than it looks.
Check out 'Perfect stranger' for an example of this badly and Agatha Christies novel 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' to see it done brilliantly.
Please consider me as an alternative to suicide
I know the feeling, the most jarring thing for me was the change of tone in the movie. It starts out as a comedy and ends being very dark and tragic, it kinda messes with your emotions. That said, it was very thoughtfully done in this case. The whole theme of the movie is about the twists and misdirections.. think of the horse falling close to the finish line. That holy crap moment where the whole world comes tumbling down. Its the kansas city shuffle.
That movie was not dark and tragic. A tragic ending would have been Lindsey ( Lucy Liu) dying or walking away from Henry and him having to live with guilt the rest of his life. He told the Boss and Rabbi that you two killed the only things I ever loved, so even though he survived He led an unhappy life. Now he has someone to love and who loves him in Lindsey. That is actually a happy ending for him.
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I felt lied to by this movie.
Yea. I wasted time watching it.
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