frality

[gnmarsh]

this one is worth seeing, curious as to the thoughts on it here.

[Tyjenks]

Dark, depressing, creepy. Perfect role for Paxton. I liked the look and feel Paxton gave it, too. I loved it. The ending makes you wonder. Plus McCauneghy (sp?) in a non-pretty boy role. I think he is good as well.

One of my favorites this year.

[Ergo]

Good movie, though the ending didn't make me "wonder" at all. I thought everything was spelled out pretty clearly.

[Tyjenks]

I meant it made me wonder about God, angels, devils, etc. I guess I shoulda said that the ending makes ya' think. :)

[Ergo]

That makes more sense, I guess. I'm an atheist, though, so I didn't ruminate over the ending much. :D

[Bub, Andrew]

I'm an atheist

Aha! We now know that Ergo is not in a foxhole.

[Toddy]

I thought that too much was spelled out at the ending. All of the creepy tone vanished as soon as you realized that Paxton's wacko with an axe really was getting messages from God. And the whole deal with McConaughey as the sherriff at the end? Maybe I missed something that led up to this, but that seemed to come right out of blue. Was it supposed to be some sort of acknowledgement of his righteousness? And was his wife pregnant? Was that some kind of allusion to Christ? Sorry for the questions, but I watched Frailty at something like 4 in the morning a few weeks ago and my memory is hazy.

[Kyle Wilson]

I think the sherriff bit was just patching over a plot hole, since the FBI dude had called the sherriff's office at the beginning to ask about McConaughey and the ambulance. Why would the sherriff's office lie for him? Oh, ending scene explains it all...

I thought it was decent, and like the way they wrapped it up. Paxton did well in front of the camera, but all the other actors seemed a little wooden, which makes me think he wasn't directing so well. Worth a rental, though.

[Rywill]

I liked it a lot. It was pretty slow, but in a "Turn of the Screw" way rather than a "Gangs of New York" way (I hope Chet doesn't read this thread). The slowness worked for this story. Also, Paxton as a visual director (or whomever was his cinematographer) was excellent. Awesome visuals.

I was disappointed in the ending just because, up until that point, the whole thing could conceivably have gone either way--and they went with the implausible explanation rather than the plausible one. I agree with the poster above who said that the movie was a lot creepier when you thought that Paxton was probably crazy, but were kept wondering whether maybe, just maybe, he wasn't.

[graller]

I liked the flick and found the ending thought provoking. It would be sooo easy to write them off as good ole boys over the edge killing folk. The idea that the people they killed were really bad people was a lot of fun and I liked it.

[gnmarsh]

they allude to him being a cop in the car ride. They actually foreshadowed quite a bit of the ending there.

[wumpus]

Well, we did learn one thing: God is creepy.

[Jim F.]

As for the wife being pregnant, I don't think it was meant as a Christ reference. I think Paxton was shooting for a "...and another generation of holy avengers is in the oven" scene.

The movie itself was great. Spent the whole thing wondering if he was nuts or if he really did get messages from God. He would do something completely nuts, but follow it up by telling his next victim exactly what it was he had done to deserve death. The end did go a little overobard on the explination. It didn't leave anything up to interpretation, it spelled out every detail. You could have shown the video with the fuzzy line in it, his explination of what the FBI agent did to his mother, etc... without the flashbacks, it still would have made you wonder. In the end, we're left with all facts.

[Michael Butt]

As for the wife being pregnant, I don't think it was meant as a Christ reference. I think Paxton was shooting for a "...and another generation of holy avengers is in the oven" scene.

I agree.

I liked the ending. True, it really didn't leave many questions, but know he WASN'T crazy was much more satisfying for me. I also really liked the climax with the FBI guy (because you were on my list.)

The ending, and really the whole movie gave me a twilight-zone-esque type of feeling. Omitting excessive gore and letting you create those parts was also a good call.

Now, what the hell does OTIS mean? It was the inscription on the axe. Any significance at all?