The Shrine

<div style='font: 14pt Agatha; text-align: left; '>...in four words: Really Fucked Up Movie. But damn was it good. One of the most original films I've seen in a while and it played out nothing like I expected it to. If you haven't seen it yet do so, but be prepared for a mind fuck. On the extra bonus side, it's got Carrie-Anne Moss (who I've now become a drooling fanboy for). The DVD itself is pretty...lame. There's no audio commentary (which I would have killed to have had) and the interview with the director seemed rather stale and uninteresting. The menus will screw with your head though, which is cool.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>I wished the DVD came with a "forward playing" mode, so that you could understand the story better.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>I've been meaning to watch this movie for awhile. I believe the same guy directed Pi. That movie was wicked sweet!</div>

<div style='font: 14pt Agatha; text-align: left; '>...what got me was that they never really came clean on who was telling the truth in the whole situation. We learned that Natalie more or less was using Lenny to get at Dodd, but we never really learn if she figured out that he killed her boyfriend Jimmy. Was Teddy really a dirty cop using Lenny for his own ends? Did Lenny really kill the ~real~ guy he was looking for or was everything just kind of stuck in his head like Teddy indicated at the end...errr...beginning...umm..right after Lenny killed Jimmy. There were a ton of unanswered questions that I would have liked to have seen answers for. An audio commentary should have really been done for this movie. It would have provided so much insight as to what the fuck was going on.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>No, the Pi guy is Darren Aronofsky and his second claim to fame is Requiem For A Dream. Christopher Nolan did Memento</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>I really had that problem with it, too. Too many unanswered questions.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>I think that would pretty much defeat the entire purpose. The DVD tracks are split up with respect to the sections though, so it wouldnt be tough to watch it in reverse if you really wanted.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Remember, she was the one who provided Lenny the information about Teddy's license plate: full name, picture.

What I'm nit sure about is Sammy Jankis. The man Lenny talked about a lot. Sammy is the guy who lost his short term memory also and his wife was trying to convince the insurance that he wasn't faking it. Was Lenny REALLY Sammy? Coz if you recall, when the movie showed Sammy in the mental home, the chacter switched from Sammy to Lenny in one frame. It's at the end of Chapter 16 if you wanna review it.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt Agatha; text-align: left; '>Lenny himself provided the information on Teddy, remember at the very end he himself was taking down Teddy's liscense plates so he could get him later. All Natalie did was run that plate by her friend in the DMV. While Natalie may have wanted Teddy gone for her own reasons, especially if she knew or later figured out that he set up Jimmy her BF, she didn't set Teddy up per se.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt Agatha; text-align: left; '>Don't misunderstand me though. For all the unanswered questions, I really liked the movie and highly recommend it. Just have to be prepared to do a little thinking.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Ah! Yes, you are correct. Lenny knew he'd forget that Teddy wasn't the guy. But he knew he could fool himself into believing it simply by righting the plate down! I TOLD YOU! =8^)</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Probably cause both movies bend your brain over and proceed to violate it for 2 hours with out giving it any common curteosy.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>SPOILERS! SPOILERS I TELL YOU! ALL OF IT!!!! *runs and hides under a couch with his hockey stick*</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>In RfaD, quite literially :P</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>Well, I'm just saying as a special bonus after you've seen it the first time.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Don't forget it has the entire short story, which is a very neat idea. It's definetely one of the greatest stories I've ever seen in a movie</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>The Canadian edition of the DVD has a Chronological Order option which allows you to play the scenes one-by-one in chronological order, for those whose brains fried trying to follow it normally :-)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Natalie used him to get rid of Dodd, who was after her for the coin Jimmy owed him, AND to get revenge on Teddy, who she found out had Jimmy killed. If you remember the end of the film (beginning of the story) Teddy admitted that he had killed John G. a year earlier, hence that picture he slipped under his door halfway through the film. Teddy was using Lenny as kind of a "cleans the world of evil" personal crusade (sick fuck), so he wasn't a "dirty" cop, per se, but one more sick of not being able to do anything because of the law. He gave Lenny the clues and protected him. Also at the end, you realize that it was actually Lenny that initiated the killing of Teddy since he wrote down a few clues for later before he forgot, such as the licence plate and the "Don't believe his lies" on the picture (it may have been "He is the one" or something). Without those clues, he would never have killed Teddy. So he and Natalie both wanted him killed, which was a neat twist.

Just to clarify: you do know that Lenny was, in fact, Sammy Jenkins, right?</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Yes, Lenny was Sammy Jenkins. That was the whole "learn through conditioning" part of the flik. He conditioned himself to learn the story of Sammy Jenkins through conditioning when, in fact, it was actually his story. That was another think Teddy clarified in the end, when he told him his wife survived the attack and that she had diabetes. If you remember, there was that one scene part way through where he pinched her and later you see the same scene but he's giving her an insulin injection. Why he forgot the fact she was diabetic I'm not sure, but it might have to do with the fact that he simply forgot or conditioned himself not to, I'm just not sure.

The conversation with Teddy at the end of the movie really clarifies a lot of stuff, as long as you believe Teddy wasn't really "bad", just a cop who used Lenny to get results instead of wading through mountains of red tape.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Watch it again, but pay very close attention the entire time. The end of the film REALLY clears up a lot</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Well...he wanted the money too. =8^)</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>....her boyfriend's death just by seeing Lenny in his car and with his clothes.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt Agatha; text-align: left; '>While Natalie may indeed have wanted Teddy dead, she didn't know who Teddy was (ie Lenny's "friend") until ~after~ she had her friend run the driver's liscense, if even then (there's never any explicit mention of Natalie knowing that John Edward Gammel actually went by Teddy and thus was the guy she was looking for). And as for her using Lenny to get Dodd, hell I already said that in my reply to G-man. And we never see any concrete proof that Teddy really is a cop and not pulling out another load of bullshit. And as for the Sammy Jenkis thing, we don't know that for sure either because it came from Teddy and we don't know how reliable a source he is. He could be telling chip-truth or laying out more lies. Hell, we're already sure that he lied to Lenny more than once (to get him after Natalie's BF, for example). Anything that isn't exactly shown on screen in the movie is subject to interpretation and conjecture. Therefore while I may be, and probably am, at least a little wrong on what may or may not have happened but I'm also probably a bit right as well.

I hope that all made sense. I just got home after having a few drinks and I'm not sure how coherent I am.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Her boyfriend was expecting Teddy to be at the abandoned house, but met Lenny instead....so maybe she knew Teddy as well.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>He was just trying to confuse him. I didn't believe most of what he said anyway. Lenny's older memories were still there. He could still remember.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>Again, information from Teddy, which doesn't mean jackshit. I was hoping there would be actual "footage" of some of the real answers.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Teddy had no reason to lie to Lenny. Remember, Lenny's gonna forget in a couple of minutes anyways, just like he's gonna forget about what he did at the end of the film with Jimmy</div>