Doppia colpa

"Spinning Man" is a very intelligent film that draws interesting parallels between a philosophy teacher's search for truth and that of a detective. The performances, particularly by Pierce and Bronson, are excellent. The plot is satisfyingly complex with an ever-tightening noose of circumstantial evidence, but seems a bit contrived and ultimately disappointing with a bit of a deus ex machina ending and a bit of misdirection in the denouement. Production values are adequate, with several parallels involving rodent traps, dependencies and posters for missing pets, although some of the parallels seem a bit spot-on. The picture is gloomy with weather suggesting an impending storm, reflecting the mood of the characters.

I enjoyed the movie. In my opinion the writing was really good, and they tried to make it suspenseful but it wasn't very, in my opinion.

Guy Pearce plays a college Philosophy professor who just so happens to own the same looking car as the last person seen before a young woman went missing. Or was it him? Pierce Brosnan is going to figure it out, as he's playing the homicide detective. Along the way, Guy's wife is trying to figure out if her husband could have really had anything to do with this.

I don't have really anything bad to say about it, but it wasn't the best movie that Pearce or Pierce have ever been in, though they do act well together. I'd love to see them do another film together.

This movie is a slow burner, it REALLY gave me sort of a "Memento" vibe while watching it. They probably could have made it better though, there was plenty of room for improvement. But like I said, I enjoyed it. Decent flick to pass a couple hours.

A college student Joyce Bonner (Odeya Rush) goes missing and police detective Malloy (Pierce Brosnan) keys in on Philosophy professor Evan Birch (Guy Pearce) who is known to have affairs with students.

This really needed more suspects, but we have only one and I couldn't make up my mind if he was guilty or not. He acted so innocent and uncaring that I thought it couldn't be him. Yet, maybe that is what they wanted me to think. Yet there was no one else. His wife Ellen (Minnie Driver) was coming to believe their 5-yrs ago in another town was closing in on her and she doesn't want to move again.

Detective Malloy tells Professor Evan that they both have something in common: they both seek the truth.

I liked Pierce Brosnan as the detective and kind of hope he will do more of this kind of character in other movies. Hey, we need a good guy in movies once in a while. I just couldn't read Guy Pearce as the professor as everything told me he was innocent............yet.........there was no one else.

Notables: Alexandra Shipp as Ana, a student who had some kind of history with the professor; Clark Gregg as Paul, Evan's lawyer.

The title indicates a spinning man, but Evan wasn't shown spinning any which way. Yes, he may have felt the spinning inside. The last scene shows the mouse the family caught spinning on a wheel. Kind of contrived I thought.

Will you be surprised when you see the ending? I was. (5/10)

Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: No. Language: Yes, near the end. Rating: C

The film's narrative evolved in complexity to the point that different paralel narratives, the blending of past and present, identities and versions of the same stories made everything confusing. Some people got that it was very deep because it questioned the reliability and indeed the concept of memory, etc., etc. However a more clear narrative and another, confusing finale would have been desirable

I loved to see Brosnan as an American homicide detective. The man has been becoming more and more of a genuine actor lately. Magnificently paired with Guy Pearce this time, providing the correct kind and dose of contrast. And maybe for the first time ever, I can state that Minnie Driver feels "right" in her role.

Though similar stories have been covered zillions of times, in the past decades mostly by TV shows like CSI, the focus is on something else here: The difference between reality and the perception of it. A mid-aged man teaching philosophy, one who raises genuine questions on his actual culpabilitiy, functions very well as the central character, more so than you might expect.

A couple of visual tricks helped the film grow on me as well. One was the shot in which we saw the pole to one side of which the poster for the (fake) bunny search was just stapled, whereas on the other side the suspect saw the poster for the missing girl. The other was how the dialogue between the husband and wife was shown, reflecting from two mirrors standing side by side, the couple talking to each other physically whereas the visual trick functioned to reveal they were rather speaking into oblivion in solitude, with their reflections looking the opposite ways. I wonder if this was a homage to a way older scene from the history of cinema, something by Tarkovski maybe, or if the filmmakers came up with the idea on their own.

There was almost nothing "wrong" with the movie. The scenes functioned, tension and mystery built up well enough till the final act. And then...

Well, the film ended in a way that you could expect. That's it.

As a viewer, I felt deprived of a potentially awesome version of that very same finale, which could have been created simply by re-editing certain scenes. Ending such a story with questions hanging in the air is not awkward at all, but there was either some laziness, or some confusion on what emotions to extract from the audiance.

With Pierce of previous "memento" problems in the cast, this could well have become as captivating as Seven. Maybe a false lead was needed to provide some distraction from the main issue.

Wasted opportunity but still worth a watch.