House of Games - frustrating ending
Dead Zed
I love this movie by David Mamet, with its tough dialogue and its play
on people's greed, but I just hate the copout ending with the
psychiatrist shooting Joe Mantegna. It just makes no sense that the
character would do this.
I was expecting the final showdown to be a nasty battle of words, like
in Glengarry Glen Ross. What would have happened if in Glengarry's final
showdown between Kevin Spacey and Jack Lemmon, one of them pulled out a
gun and blew the other away? It would have cheapened the film and most
of its power would have been lost. House of Games should have been
another Mamet classic, but that dumb ending throws away everthing that
built up to it.
John Harkness
wrote:
Well, I have to disagree with you.
The shrink's final reaction is the ultimate statement of how she's
lost control of her world -- effectively, that the world of words has
betrayed her, and her fall into violence is the final statement of
that loss of control.
The comparison with Glengarry Glen Ross doesn't really work, because
the relationship is far different -- Lemmon and Spacey never have a
relationshiip based on one character's trust in the other, which the
doctor in House of Games thinks she has with Mantegna. There's no real
betrayal in Glengarry, the way that the shrink sees a betrayal in HoG
Her reaction is both to Mantegna's betrayal of her and to her own
willing participation in the betrayal. Her violations of her own
professional code do indeed show her things about herself that she
didn't want to acknowledge. ("the bitch is a booster"), so he's doubly
damned in her eyes. The only way she can get her life back to
something like its previous shape is to destroy the evidence of its
destruction.
John Harkness
Dead Zed
Okay, I buy that argument, but I still feel murder is too easy a
resolution. I think we're too used to characters in movies resorting to
murder for an emotional impact. I thought these characters were more
realistic and the situations centered around perceived violence, hence
why I found it difficult for the psychiatrist to commit an act of
homicide so easily.
Maybe my perception would be different if I saw this before Glengarry
Glen Ross instead of after, where I was expecting more of the same by
the same writer.
John Harkness
wrote:
>>>*** SPOILERS *** obviously
Realistic? Well, in the Mametverse, I suppose.
John Harkness
Jack Stalnaker
the movie unusual and interesting, but I just didn't know what to make of
that ending (the murder). I'm still not sure if that's a satisfying
conclusion to all the con-games that went before. Not ironic or surprising
enough? I'm not sure.
The oddest things can lead you to a movie you never heard of. I discovered
"House of Games" because of Diane Varsi, the "Peyton Place" actress who
temporarily walked away from her career in 1959. Near the beginning of
"House of Games" a young girl approaches Lindsay Crouse on the street,
asking her for an autograph, I think. The young girl is actress Willo
Hausman -- the daughter of Diane Varsi. I found Willo Hausman listed at IMDb
and that led me to "House of Games."
JCS
http://www.meekermuseum.com/
**************************************************************
The Meeker Museum is a nonprofit, nonexistent organization
dedicated to the pursuit of inner peace through movie stars.
Mack Twamley
"Jack Stalnaker" <mee...@airmail.net> wrote in message
news:40615A2573F6EBE7.05836EBC...@lp.airnews.net...
> I'm glad people are talking about the ending of "House of Games." I found
> the movie unusual and interesting, but I just didn't know what to make of
> that ending (the murder). I'm still not sure if that's a satisfying
> conclusion to all the con-games that went before. Not ironic or surprising
> enough? I'm not sure.
>
> The oddest things can lead you to a movie you never heard of. I discovered
> "House of Games" because of Diane Varsi, the "Peyton Place" actress who
> temporarily walked away from her career in 1959. Near the beginning of
> "House of Games" a young girl approaches Lindsay Crouse on the street,
> asking her for an autograph, I think. The young girl is actress Willo
> Hausman -- the daughter of Diane Varsi. I found Willo Hausman listed at
IMDb
> and that led me to "House of Games."
>
> JCS
I found House of Games to be a snorefest, mainly because of the execrable
acting of Lindsay Crouse AND Joe Mantegna, about as memorable as a forties
newsreel about fashion shows. Crouse especially can't seem to act her way
out of a paper bag, and Mantegna is someone I've never believed in any
role....he just seems part of the furniture.
sgw
"Dead Zed" <dea...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:L0JR9.8520$8M3.1...@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Okay, I buy that argument, but I still feel murder is too easy a
> resolution. I think we're too used to characters in movies resorting to
> murder for an emotional impact. I thought these characters were more
> realistic and the situations centered around perceived violence, hence
> why I found it difficult for the psychiatrist to commit an act of
> homicide so easily.
>
emotion, period. And to me, that's why the ending made perfect sense (at
least, in the movie's universe). You have a woman who has very little
emotion, very little feeling, looks at everything in an organized, sensible,
scientific manner - and probably for the only time in her whole life, she
goes along for the ride with someone else and experiences some excitement,
some good sex (with the added thrill of not knowing if someone might come
into the room any minute), some sense of belonging to a fun group -
something other than her neatly organized little reined-in self. And then
she finds out that she's been screwed over but good, and the cold,
analytical part of her takes over in the airport. She has no more feeling
for Mike at that point than she would for a cockroach she's getting ready to
squash - but after he's gone, and all of "that business" is over with, she
can open up again. And boost a cigarette lighter, for starts.
Sally
larry legallo
<mee...@airmail.net> wrote:
>I'm glad people are talking about the ending of "House of Games." I found
>the movie unusual and interesting, but I just didn't know what to make of
>that ending (the murder). I'm still not sure if that's a satisfying
>conclusion to all the con-games that went before. Not ironic or surprising
>enough? I'm not sure.
The ending is always a problem with these types of films. There's
been so many twists and double-crosses, everybody is trying to
outguess each turn, and you end up with a dilemma of not being able to
hit an adequate climax. I don't think the ending is completely
satisfying, either. Some sort of clever coda might have provided a
better finish, or it might have ruined everything. I'm not sure,
either. Still love the film.
>The oddest things can lead you to a movie you never heard of. I discovered
>"House of Games" because of Diane Varsi, the "Peyton Place" actress who
>temporarily walked away from her career in 1959. Near the beginning of
>"House of Games" a young girl approaches Lindsay Crouse on the street,
>asking her for an autograph, I think. The young girl is actress Willo
>Hausman -- the daughter of Diane Varsi. I found Willo Hausman listed at IMDb
>and that led me to "House of Games."
There could be a whole thread devoted to interesting discoveries from
browsing the imdb.
Chris
> I found it difficult for the psychiatrist to commit an act
> of homicide so easily.
Man, if that was easy I'd hate to see what is hard! She was at the end of
her tether, all her education, efficient organization, and words, words,
words couldn't help her and she finally resorted to a violent act.
It reminds me of all the films where the outsider adolescent is invited to
join some popular group he has always wanted to be part of-- and then they
find out they only wanted to make fun or otherwise use them. So they get
revenge in one way or another.
Except that Mamet has much more interesting dialogue :)