nhillyer Reviews

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)

Too many unanswered plot questions

[7 December 2004]

I was really hoping this movie would be good, but the plot left way too many unanswered questions. One gets the impression that the script was a LOT longer and tons of the movie was just trimmed away, or they ran out of money while making it. A lot of screen time is wasted on scenes which go nowhere to further the plot (brutality scene in the woods, at the rural victim's house, taxi scene, etc.) while the rather significant scenes are left undeveloped. Before one knows it, the credits are rolling, and some very big questions are raised and left unanswered, like: who the hell is McDowell's character and what makes him hate this kid so much that he wants to rape him (the rather flimsy scene describing why is hardly sufficient), what happens to the woman being held hostage (or killed?) by the thug from Belfast, what happens to Will's old gang and to Will himself in the end? I hate to say it, but this movie feels like film that either ran out of money or time or most likely both because I certainly hope the original script had a lot more content than is presented. This one for me was a rental that actually annoyed me when the credits rolled because it felt like buying a pint of beer only to have it spilled after only drinking a quarter of it.