Usually I end up disliking movies when I hear a lot of good things about them. I guess hype surrounding a movie (or anything else for that matter) tends to make me more skeptical about it.
In this case, I knew that it was a low-budget movie and the first movie made by both the writer and director. Where a lot of negative reviews pointed out the many flaws with the movie, I was really surprised at how good it was for a low-budget flick. Sure there were a lot of things wrong with it, but overall, I enjoyed it. (Okay, 'enjoyed' may sound a little perverse given the subject matter.)
When it comes to any kind of entertainment, how I rate something comes down to three things:
- The 'escape' value. Something with a high escape value will find me losing track of time while something with a low value will have me looking at the time. Basically, how well does it keep my attention.
- Did I walk away with something? Did it make me think, evoke emotions (even if it's something as simple as genuine laughter) or leave me questioning my feelings and opinions about something?
- Will I remember it? This is really tied in closely with #2. But there are many books, movies and tv shows that I didn't really walk away with anything from, yet I remembered it for some reason.
In all 3 cases, "Saw" came out on top for me.
I know that many who have seen the movie, didn't like the ending because it left so many unanswered questions. The top two being: do Adam and Lawrence survive? Given the number of discussions I've seen online about this, I wanted to share my two cents.
We know that Jigsaw's 'game' is about getting people to prove what life means to them by their being able to complete tests. We know that it is possible to win his tests and survival is a possible outcome because Amanda passed her test and lived. We also know that Jigsaw really thought things through carefully.
So, if you take the survival of Adam and Lawrence on the basis that they would each win or die depending on whether they passed or failed their tests, it makes things a lot easier.
Lawrence obviously failed. He missed his 6 o'clock deadline for killing Adam. Amputating his foot as he did, with the resulting blood loss, it's hard to imagine that survival was even a remote possibility. I can't imagine how Lawrence could have survived. He shouldn't have according to Jigsaw's rules.
Adam is another story. He was not given as straightforward a test as the others. Adam had been a voyeur into others people's lives and neglecting his own. Jigsaw wanted him to learn to appreciate the value of his own life.
I've read the opinions of a number of people that Adam still had a final test: to get the key out of the drain. However, before Jigsaw leaves the washroom, he tells Adam, "Game over." In saying this, I believe that Jigsaw is telling Adam that he won.
Many people also seem to believe that Adam's survival is contingent on him being able to somehow obtain the key and undo the lock holding his chains. I don't think that is even necessary. He's only been locked in the washroom for a matter of 6-7 hours. He could easily survive there for days. We saw that the video was set up in the doctor's home showing the washroom. Lawrence's wife will be able to tell the police about the cell phone call. The cell phone is in the washroom. Presumably, even without someone answering the phone, eventually, by continually ringing it, they'd be able to track it down. If Lawrence was able to get partway out of where they were hidden, I'm sure that would make it easier to find Adam.
The only way I can imagine that Adam would not survive until help came would be if he somehow killed himself. I doubt that would happen because he's already shown he wants to live.
So, I think the death of Lawrence and eventual survival of Adam are inevitable.
A couple of things I think were interesting in the movie that I wish had been better explored or explained:
It seems like Lawrence was a target of Jigsaw's from the beginning. Lawrence was framed to look like he was Jigsaw. But more than that - we know that the police raid on Jigsaw's hideout happened 6 months before Lawrence's kidnapping. Yet in Jigsaw's hideout, there was a model of the washroom that Lawrence and Adam were held captive in.
Other than being Jigsaw's doctor, what was Jigsaw's real issue with Lawrence? It seems like there was more to this than Lawrence being a simple victim.
Also, the issue of Jigsaw's tumor... coincidentally I am finishing reading Michael Crichton's "The Terminal Man." In this book, the main character suffers from a flaw in his brain that results in seizures that precipitate increasingly violent behavior. Doctors within the book say they have reason to believe that physical deformities of the brain often are the cause of psychotic or extreme criminal behavior. Seeing "Saw" so close to reading this book made it a little easier for me grasp the idea that a tumour could, in fact, result in homidical/psychopathic behavior.
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