daveb@rtech.UUCP (Dave Brower) (10/15/85)
I just got back from watching 'Jagged Edge,' the Glenn Close / Jeff
Bridges murder mystery. All in all pretty good, if you go with the flow
and don't look for trouble.
But, ah, well, I found myself wondering about some things and wanted to
hear what some others had to think. Because the things that bother me
give 105% of the plot away, I'm going to stick in some of those annoying
blanks lines before continuing.
If you haven't seen Jagged Edge, hit the 'n' key now.
Ok, you've seen it or are trying to save yourself five bucks. Here are
some questions, and my initial reactions.
1. Was that Jeff Bridges at the end? The picture was kind of indistinct.
] When the hood was pulled back, I said to myself, "Who the f*** is that?"
] A quick poll of the audience came to the conclusion, "It must have been,"
] but nobody was *really* sure. And I don't think it was intended it to be
] ambiguous.
2. Why didn't Glen Close wonder about the origin of the notes?
] To do so would ruin the plot.
3. What was the purpose of the ashes-into-the-bay scene? Did it make sense?
] It wants to place you in a pro-Jeff mood. How could someone
] throwing roses on the water be the murderer? (Unless expecting someone
] to be a witness, of which none were shown).
4. Would Bobby Slade *really* have confronted Glen in the parking lot?
] I can't buy that. It's just a device to scare her a little and to place
] her in a frame of mind to aceept the possibility of Slade being the
] murderer. Bobby had no reason to make himself more visible.
5. Why was the typewriter hidden in the closet by the bedroom?
] So she could find it. But it seems unlikely that anyone as fiendishly
] clever as Jeff would have been that stupid.
6. Is Glen Close the kind of woman who keeps a gun lying around the house?
] No. This rings *WRONG* *WRONG* *WRONG*. She's escaped to corporate
] law to not think about criminals. She's got little kids, and knows
] how dangerous it is to have a weapon in the house. She is not going
] to have one by the pillow.
7. Why doens't she ask the detective to race over or call the cops?
] It would ruin the emoptional satisfaction of her blasting the SOB,
] even though it would be the sensible thing to do. Especially after
] she had the good sense to hit the horn in the garage with Bobby.
8. (ba.angle) Why are there SFPD cars at the murder scene? It's got to
be in Marin or San Mateo...
] Don't want to confuse the audience with silly jursidictional disputes,
] and it gives them an excuse to use City Hall as a courthouse.
I think Glenn Close had a horrible role here. She is supposed to go
from hard-nosed super-counsel to weepy weak-kneed betrayed girl back and
forth and back. It feels very contrived, and I can't easily accept it.
Recommendation: If you're into these things (murder mysteries and
courtroom drama), by all means see it. But you could also rent 'Blood
Simple' from the Video store and have a lot more fun.
-dB
--
{amdahl|dual|sun|zehntel}\ |"If his brains ran down, how could
{ucbvax|decvax}!mtxinu---->!rtech!daveb |he talk?"
ihnp4!{phoenix|amdahl}___/ |"Happens to people all the time...."lcliffor@bbncca.ARPA (Laura Frank Clifford) (10/17/85)
And what about the jagged edged hunting knife? Were we supposed to believe that two guys happened to have knives in their gym lockers, numbered 122 and 222, or just that the janitor made a mistake and that coincidentally, some guy one row away from Bridges happened to have the same kind of knife in his locker that was used as a murder weapon?