RE: SPIELBERG AND MINORITY REPORT - CS reader Sam Hallgren echoes my thoughts about Spielberg generally being one of the most manipulative filmmakers in Hollywood. Sam writes: "Spielberg, despite his twin Oscar nods for best direction, will be remembered by film historians for his chronic, and occasionally distasteful, reliance on cheap manipulation and a debilitating weak spot for sentimentality."

I couldn't have said it any better, Sam. Spielberg's lack of subtlety and overpowering desire to beat his (usually uplifting) message into our heads has always bothered me. And I simply can't stress enough how much better Saving Private Ryan would have been minus the sappy bookends with the old Ryan and family. I always love it when people talk about how great the first 20 minutes of Ryan is (D-Day) because that's not actually how the movie started - but it sure should have. To be fair, however, the scenes at the cemetery ("Have I led a good life?") seem to resonate with most baby boomer men I've ever talked with about the film. No insult here. I'm simply acknowledging that my generation is perhaps too cynical for the kind of saccharine Spielberg likes to serve up. You can decide whether that's a good or a bad thing.

Sam has praise for Spielberg's latest though: "Although "Minority Report" suffers from the same flaws that Spielberg's "popcorn movies" have always endured--an unsophisticated, juvenile sense of humor, shameless sentimentality and a prudish attitude toward sex--it makes up for these weaknesses with Spielberg's preternatural instinct for providing moviegoers with a delirious movie contact-high."

I agree...mostly. The first hour of Minority Report, especially the opening sequence with Cruise trying to foil a crime of passion before it happens, is exhilarating. The second half isn't as thrilling for a number of reasons: Too many plot distractions (In the future they can stop crimes before they happen, but they can't change the locks at Pre-Crime headquarters); Spielberg's contrived, conventional happy ending; and a plot twist that I saw coming about 20 minutes into the movie. And I mention this last point only because it's precisely the kind of thing I never try to figure out. I'm usually along for the ride and not trying to outhink the writer/director. But there's a scene early on that should scream deja vu to anybody who saw L.A. Confidential.

[Spoiler Alert! Don't read on if you haven't seen the movie and don't want the ending given away.]

I have a potential theory about the ending of Minority Report that I wanted to throw out. If anyone has seen this theory put forward elsewhere, please let me know. Is it possible, and wouldn't it be cool, if what seems like the ending of the movie - when Cruise is collared for murder and incarcerated - was actually the ending of the movie? As the prison guard (Tim Blake Nelson) loads Cruise into his cell - a contraption that seems to essentially keep the prisoner in some kind of suspended, sedentary state - he makes a comment about how he's heard that it's like living in a dream. The very next scene has Cruise's ex-wife discovering (somewhat ridiculously) that Max von Sydow is really the bad guy and that her husband is innocent. She then manages (totally ridiculously) to get into the jail and force the guard to release her husband. From there they bring down von Sydow, get back together, and all ends well with them looking to the future with a baby on the way. Tell me it isn't possible that everything that happens after Cruise is imprisoned is really just a dream, as the guard implies - his fantasy of how his life should play out. It certainly would explain why the whole finale seems so absurd, not to mention redeem Spielberg for yet another glossy ending. I haven't read the Philip K. Dick story that inspired the movie, but my guess is that this ending would be closer to what Dick had in mind.

Or maybe I'm on crack.