I went in with few preconceptions. Having since seen some of the negative reviews, I think you just need to be in the mood for one of those serious-minded downers. Also, I think the lead actress was perfect. That’s exactly the kind of understated low-key behavior I find believable in such a woman. She was a good dramatic foil to the more whup it up Leonardo DiCaprio character.
I’m writing this review several weeks later. What impressions stuck?
The DiCaprio character was a divided mind. On the one hand, he was motivated by money, he’d be the first to tell you. On the other hand, he was in love with his wife, to a threshold she could bear and make reciprocal. But the money motive overruled at the end of the day. He was close to blind to his own predicament, so conflicted he had become.
Weeks later, last night in fact, I saw the newest Hunger Games, the prequel. In my mind, they formed a double feature, as here was another deeply conflicted male who more consciously brought it all together in the end, in a Darth Vadery speech paying tribute to the Will to Power.
I found it most interesting that diabetes was the real killer in this picture, which the money hungry males could aide and abet. Appetites must be balanced against what a body is able to digest and make healthy use of.
Some appetites become addictions, in the absence of adequate defenses (e.g. insulin), leading to the slow (or fast) undermining of a whole culture. The appetite for oil money was no less destructive in many cases.
