*REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!*
The viewer grows accustomed to the slower pace of the majority of the film, an aspect of it I did not mind; however, the ending unfolds so disproportionately rapidly that all of what ostensibly appeared to be careful plotting is just ripped apart in a mass of unanswered questions and gore.
Some of the questions that linger: do the Greens (both Nora and Alex) have some indestructible jugular vein? Both of them improbably survive direct slashes to their jugulars and Alex is even able to launch an impressive physical assault on Jane after she makes a gash in his that spews blood in jets when he isn't holding it with his hand!
How did no one manage to find out what actually happened when Nora confronted and attacked Alex, slicing up his face? And how did he manage to fake a death certificate? Also, how did he manage to fabricate a car accident scenario that made it look like he had lost his face when the rest of him was unscathed? Were the first responders not perplexed when they arrived on the scene? And finally, when it comes to improbability, how in the world did Jane manage to so escape from the psychiatric institution so easily --- straight into the arms of Alex himself!
That brings us to the messy ending. Aside from the fact that Alex was a pyscho, what was the purpose of murdering Clara and Terry? It just seemed like literal overkill. And what ultimately happens to Jane? The entire movie we are meant (I presume) to invest in her character and her plight, but we do not get to learn what becomes of her after she (presumably) kills Alex by, incredibly enough, not piercing his jugular but tearing off the skin graph he has for a face? The psychiatrist at the institution seemed to have something seriously against her personally (also unexplained), which hints that she might wind up institutionalized again, but then there's all the evidence of the bloody mayhem Alex caused, so will she be exonerated?
Questions, questions. Yet, despite all of them, this movie was indeed strangely watchable.
The viewer grows accustomed to the slower pace of the majority of the film, an aspect of it I did not mind; however, the ending unfolds so disproportionately rapidly that all of what ostensibly appeared to be careful plotting is just ripped apart in a mass of unanswered questions and gore.
Some of the questions that linger: do the Greens (both Nora and Alex) have some indestructible jugular vein? Both of them improbably survive direct slashes to their jugulars and Alex is even able to launch an impressive physical assault on Jane after she makes a gash in his that spews blood in jets when he isn't holding it with his hand!
How did no one manage to find out what actually happened when Nora confronted and attacked Alex, slicing up his face? And how did he manage to fake a death certificate? Also, how did he manage to fabricate a car accident scenario that made it look like he had lost his face when the rest of him was unscathed? Were the first responders not perplexed when they arrived on the scene? And finally, when it comes to improbability, how in the world did Jane manage to so escape from the psychiatric institution so easily --- straight into the arms of Alex himself!
That brings us to the messy ending. Aside from the fact that Alex was a pyscho, what was the purpose of murdering Clara and Terry? It just seemed like literal overkill. And what ultimately happens to Jane? The entire movie we are meant (I presume) to invest in her character and her plight, but we do not get to learn what becomes of her after she (presumably) kills Alex by, incredibly enough, not piercing his jugular but tearing off the skin graph he has for a face? The psychiatrist at the institution seemed to have something seriously against her personally (also unexplained), which hints that she might wind up institutionalized again, but then there's all the evidence of the bloody mayhem Alex caused, so will she be exonerated?
Questions, questions. Yet, despite all of them, this movie was indeed strangely watchable.