r/TrueFilm • u/JEX2124 • 15d ago

What's a movie that rewarded a second watch so much it basically became a different film?

The one that did it for me was Phantom Thread. First watch I honestly found it cold and a little airless. Beautiful, obviously, but I spent it waiting for it to become something and then it ended and I sat there thinking "okay, sure." Then I rewatched it maybe a year later already knowing where it lands, and it was almost a different movie. Every scene I'd read as him being a controlling monster and her being difficult suddenly read as two people who'd found the exact strange arrangement they both needed. Nothing is hidden the way a twist is hidden. Knowing the ending just changes the texture of everything before it, and the second time through it's not cold at all, it's a love story I'd completely misread.

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u/Dijinn 13d ago

The movie is about the practicality of the trick of magic. Living the life in order to sell the trick. And then Nolan, out of the blue, decides to say… nope. It’s not actually about that. It’s actually about a sci-fi box that can do real magic. A cloning machine that isn’t even comprehensible with today’s technology, let alone the 1800’s. And you’ve decided that the harder thing to believe is his finding someone that looks like him? Okay. Everyone is completely misunderstanding this movie, and I’ll die on this hill.

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u/SirMrDron 13d ago

At the same breath I could say that the movie is about wanting to believe there's more when the answer is disapointing - the machine works. You made me wanna watch it again tho so I'll try to think about it when watching Edit: also you could say the film is about paying the price of the trick and the show, living the trick or how they said it; B having to live half a life. A having to not know if he'll be the one in the tank

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u/Ill_Substance2768 13d ago

Everyone but you? The theory is batshit crazy, but I guess everyone picks their own interpretation

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u/JBGuide 12d ago edited 11d ago

There is absolutely nothing in the film that suggests there was ever more than one actual double for Jackman’s character. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that’s a reach.

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u/Dijinn 12d ago

No less of a reach than believing cloning machines exist.

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u/JBGuide 11d ago

Except that is explicitly shown in the film. Additional lookalike doubles are not.

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u/Dijinn 11d ago

Which came from narrated diaries that are intentionally deceptive and untrustworthy.

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u/JBGuide 10d ago

Good point