MovieChat Forums > La migliore offerta (2014) Discussion > OK, way, waaay, WAAAY overcomplicated pl...

OK, way, waaay, WAAAY overcomplicated plot!

posted 11 years ago by dom-trussardi
42 replies | jump to latest

I mean, come on...the dude is old, ugly and some hot chick wants him? Ya, no need to rent a house, make up and illness, build a fake automaton, etc hahahahaha. I knew this fat old guy at my last work who got scammed by some whore in Russia or Africa or god knows where for MONTHS. She got over 10,000 from him because he was so desperate. I hate scammers because they prey on the vulnerable, and Virgil was that personified. Virgil would have gone with any hot girl who pretended to love art. Period. Way too overcomplicated and not a surprise at all to me. I knew that the kid and her were in on it about half way through. It was still a good movie, though. I would have had him go hunt them down at the end and have a shootout in the cafe with the clocks. Billy and that whore should have been plastered over the gears.

[–] manubhatt3 9 years ago

I 100% agree wid u mate. I think the whole plan was complicated to the extent of being unrealistic.

If it applies to you, don't bother about the people making personal comments on you in this thread. If someone really doesn't have any argument to make, they go personal!

And for criticism of the term 'hot chick', wake up people! Almost everyone uses this term casually. And yes, I am not ashamed of using that term, because thats how the world works...currently!

[–] Xeokym 9 years ago

I think the whole plan was complicated to the extent of being unrealistic.

Yeah, well, that's because it's a movie. Fiction. I'm not saying something like this couldn't happen or hasn't happened in all the history of man, but if it had been truly realistic, it probably would have been a very boring movie.

On a side note, I'm a chick and term "chick" does not offend me at all. 

I can't understand your crazy moon language.

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

Well, the film was as much about Billy's revenge for Virgil saying he had no talent. Billy was going to make a fool of Virgil. The film was very poetic like The Cask of Amontillado.

What hump? 

[–] rod775-1 9 years ago

If Virgil failed to spot or steal those small animatronic gears in Claire's villa, their scheme would have been screwed. No, this was not a satisfying movie. There are better "scam" movies.

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

Yeah, there were two big things:

1.) When Virgil overheard the phone call Claire was having where she said something like, "He's not as bad looking as you said, oh are you jealous?" It was clear he was being setup and that she had some other man who had a right or reason to be jealous, since he was likely her true lover.

2.) Those parts left in the basement - Virgil didn't have any reason to believe they were left by Claire so that meant someone else was setting him up.

And there were so many other plot holes I didn't try to count - these two just jumped out.

What hump? 

[–] nimrond 9 years ago

The gears and the whole Vaucanson automaton seemed a device to send the viewer astray, but somehow Virgil never stopped to think where those parts are coming from. He steals the gears left out for him and even when showing 'Claire' his most secret room never stops to tell her about the android. It is a tool to get him to confide in Fred and accept him as his mentor, but it must raise a lot of questions in him and could spoil their revenge plan, just as the choice to STOP LYING TO AND STEALING FROM THE ONLY WOMAN HE EVER LOVED might! :D

Honestly, there are a lot of complications in the plot designed to "fall into place later" for the viewer, it seems. The phone call to her friend/lover when first he spies on her, the second phone call to the director/Billy telling 'Claire' to change the plan to the 'happy ending', Virgil's belief that one can never fake something without being compelled to putting something of your true self in it (such as the restaurant in Prague), the talk about faking love, the automaton that in reality is a dwarf (just like 'Claire') but is faking someone giving always the 'right answers', i.e. the answers you want to hear, etc. pp.

Sadly, all of those things should also at the very least plant doubt in Virgil's mind, but they do not. What's more, many viewers realise what's really going on thanks to all these precursors, these hints, long before the reveal. But near the end Virgil even looks at the painting Billy sent him, the painting supposedly done by 'Claire's' father and of her mother and does not make the connection?

A plan so bound to the incredible observational skills and eye for details of Virgil and yet it only succeeds because he never notices the many, many signs laid out in front of him. For me, many of the intricate details that make this film great also are its greatest weakness.

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

I think one thing we're supposed to say to ourselves is that this is the way love is. A man who lived his whole life being super careful and loving only paintings let his guard down and then failed to notice all the things he could have seen if he were not in love.

I still think the movie is a stretch but I guess looking at it like that, none of it is unlikely, just stupid.

What hump? 

[–] mel2000 9 years ago

I still think the movie is a stretch but I guess looking at it like that, none of it is unlikely, just stupid.

It's an odd movie to enjoy. On the one hand its plot details are important for luring you into its slipstream. On the other hand, thinking too much about the details hurts it.

[–] zee944 9 years ago

1.) When Virgil overheard the phone call Claire was having where she said something like, "He's not as bad looking as you said, oh are you jealous?" It was clear he was being setup and that she had some other man who had a right or reason to be jealous, since he was likely her true lover.

That phone call was faked to manipulate Oldman. They wanted him to hear it. She's saying things she would only say as Claire. So that scene gave away nothing, it went exactly by the plans.

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

Well, I will admit, I couldn't hear all she said and didn't rewind to verify that what you've said, I heard most of it.

I both your interpretation and mine are valid given the very ambiguous nature of the call.

What hump? 

[–] zee944 9 years ago

I don't want to be rude, but yours is not valid, since she's not talking like she would talk with her lover at all (assuming that Billy was indeed her lover, which I think she was), and she talks about that if she can trust him.

But most importantly, she says nothing that is a giveaway about the set up.

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

Okay, I yield to your expertise.

What hump? 

[–] mel2000 9 years ago

When Virgil overheard the phone call Claire was having where she said something like, "He's not as bad looking as you said, oh are you jealous?"

That's not what Claire said. Here's a transcript of her conversation from the subtitle file. It's pretty obvious that she knows he's in the room since the person she's talking to already knows about Oldman and her "illness". And all her opinions of Oldman are complimentary.

01:05:07,174 --> 01:05:10,087
Hello? Oh, it's you, director.

01:05:10,466 --> 01:05:12,955
No, I would've called you,
it's just that...

01:05:13,132 --> 01:05:15,966
...clearing the furniture
has been complicated.

01:05:17,426 --> 01:05:19,796
Yes. Oldman is dealing with it.

01:05:20,676 --> 01:05:24,455
What's he like?
Not as old as you might think.

01:05:24,842 --> 01:05:28,587
He dresses in an odd way,
but he's still a good-looking man.

01:05:28,968 --> 01:05:30,924
I know I can trust him.

01:05:31,095 --> 01:05:34,426
Why? Are you jealous?

01:05:35,053 --> 01:05:37,885
In love? No, I don't think so.

01:05:38,094 --> 01:05:40,842
He's too put off by my illness,
like everybody.

01:05:43,010 --> 01:05:45,416
Oh no, it's nothing.
I... I hurt my foot.

01:05:45,761 --> 01:05:47,420
Can we talk later?

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

Yeah, I still really don't know what I think of that scene overall but it seemed like Oldman was supposed to wonder what it meant and wonder if there was a relationship with her and the person on the phone.

What hump? 

[–] mel2000 9 years ago

That conversation was deliberately structured to make Virgil think he had a romantic chance with her.

[–] usapon 8 years ago

yeah, well it is a movie and in real life they would have stuck a gun to his head and have him open the door and then contemplate on leaving his body inside or dumping it in the sea. Even if they let him live it would make no difference what so ever compared to going through the elaborate scheme of conning him. They would vanish and he wasn't going to the police. A 1 hour plot with a couple of removal vans and 3-4 people to carry the art out. The risk of leaving him alive is he may have connections with people high up or in Interpol and trace the con artists and kill them in vengeance. People with nothing to lose can quickly change their life's meaning into tracking and hunting just as a means to an end. Quite scarry.

To see or not to see that is the question...

[–] peterkneter (391) 6 years ago

I agree to you. The main thing why the revenge plot does not work ist that you have too little screentime of Billy (Donald Southerland Character). You are not really familiar with him and the relationship with Virgil. Mostly you see them together talking about all these great thefts they ve done. We have no clue about his hate against Virgil and we don't see him be very clever so we don't buy that he is the mastermind behind this very constructed crazy plot twist.
The other ist of course the complexity of the twist. You need an extra ordenary actress for the role of Clair who is also not shy to prostitute herself. You need all these expensive antiquities and people who transport and decorate them. You have to construct an android and deconstruct it again and hope that Virgil finds the parts. You need a fake technic shop. You need an art historican who can't use google to check the Villa and the People who lived there.
Dont get me wrong I mostly enjoyed the movie but the twist was so hardly pushed that I was just a bit disappointed then.