Oldboy : Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

I get that the smirk at the end of the movie reveals that he is happy about how everything turned out, but about what exactly? It seemed to be begging for more meaning but due to really poor direction felt completely out of place following the dark themes. It's as if some studio head forced the director to end the movie on a happy note for us poor ole nonintellectual North American audiences who can't handle the darker themes of this movie.

Is there anything more to read into that dumb smirk at the end of the movie? It's so strange tonally for someone who just found out that he *beeped* his daughter and is now returning back to his own self-imposed dungeon. Obvious thoughts suggest that he's "just so happy" that his sacrifice will now allow his daughter to live without remorse or guilt over their essentially nonconsensual incestuous relationship, and that he's finally returned to the safety of his "home." But the smirk doesn't match the reality of human reactions and only works as a movie ending. Though not true, it felt like watching the ending of The Usual Suspects, The Prestige, The Sixth Sense, and so on, with the smirk revealing a big secret twist that changed our perception of the entire movie.

I wish the smirk meant more than a poor directorial choice, like he imagines over time he will once again become crazy and has even paid to be released at some point in the future after he's been programmed to forget the entire experience of being her father. Creepy, and makes absolutely no sense since he wrote her and told her to forget about him. So this is clearly not it. So that dumb smirk at the end is just a silly directorial decision. Your thoughts?

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Re: Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

The smirk was a disaster.

Re: Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

Good, then it wasn't just me.

Re: Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

I feel that the smirk (which was poorly executed by mr. Brolin) was the character's satisfaction of receiving the punishment he felt was appropriate for what he now knew he had done to/with his daughter. Having sex with her was the terrible thing he said he had done, and that's why he paid Chaney with his reward to lock him up again (for life, I'm guessing).

Re: Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

I thought he was just happy to be back in familiar surroundings. It wasn't a smirk as much as a comfort smile.

Re: Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

I finally got enough nerve to watch this. It was as bad as I thought it would be, but I did notice something about the smirk/smile ending. When they go to the lady from Evergreen academy(Edwina Burke), she makes a comment about how Brolin's character was particularly cruel to others, "Always with a grin, as if it were a joke." Could Doucett think that what has happened has been a sick 'joke' on him and that's why he smiled? I don't pretend to be a critic, but that was what I thought...

Re: Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

Have none of you read "1984"? He is a broken man. He now loves Big Brother who has offered him the only home he knows and feels safe in.

Re: Spoiler Alert: The Smirk

Perhaps it's an allusion to Lee's earlier film Malcolm X, where the Denzel Washington has an odd smirk on his face at the moment when he is assassinated. [Spoilers]
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