If we refer to ourselves it is normally in the first person, "This is me, I am a writer." When referring a colleague we might say, "You are a writer." But when we want to be indirect in referring to ourselves we will use the third person, and that is what the author does in this story.
Liam Neeson is Michael, prize-winning author, having relationship issues and holed up in a small Paris apartment to finish his latest work. There are several other key characters in the movie but I will not discuss them. In fact, if someone is reading my comments but has not yet seen the movie, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.
SPOILERS FOLLOW: DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.
Michael is real in this story, and some of the other characters are real, but many of them are not. We don't see this clearly until the last few minutes of the story. We first get the hint when one character who had lost a child to drowning finally dives into the pool, but she disappears as we watch. She is fictional, one of the characters in Michael's writing. Later we see a woman walking away from him in a crowd, as he tries to follow her she turns into a different woman, then yet another different one.
The point of all this is Michael is incorporating himself "in the third person", into some of the characters. We don't really know for sure when the story ends who was supposed to be real (in the fictional sense) and who was just a figment of Michael's imagination. Yes this will probably drive some viewers crazy and become very unhappy that they could not unequivocally figure out every detail, but it doesn't bother me. It is a good movie that gets you to think about what you are seeing and what you just saw.
Liam Neeson is Michael, prize-winning author, having relationship issues and holed up in a small Paris apartment to finish his latest work. There are several other key characters in the movie but I will not discuss them. In fact, if someone is reading my comments but has not yet seen the movie, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.
SPOILERS FOLLOW: DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.
Michael is real in this story, and some of the other characters are real, but many of them are not. We don't see this clearly until the last few minutes of the story. We first get the hint when one character who had lost a child to drowning finally dives into the pool, but she disappears as we watch. She is fictional, one of the characters in Michael's writing. Later we see a woman walking away from him in a crowd, as he tries to follow her she turns into a different woman, then yet another different one.
The point of all this is Michael is incorporating himself "in the third person", into some of the characters. We don't really know for sure when the story ends who was supposed to be real (in the fictional sense) and who was just a figment of Michael's imagination. Yes this will probably drive some viewers crazy and become very unhappy that they could not unequivocally figure out every detail, but it doesn't bother me. It is a good movie that gets you to think about what you are seeing and what you just saw.