open-ended

I loved the beginning of Duplicity. Well, not the mutual seduction between Roberts and Owen, but the two executive jets and slow motion of the fights between the two CEOs.
The movie is definitely not the best of the year. The story is not the best of its type. The acting is not the best performance in the career of any actors in the film. The music is ok. The visual presentation is in a good old fashion: clean, clear, close-ups, and the use of the flashback moments in fragments.
Some individual one-scene shots are powerfully arranged like the two jets. Lines are well written.
Witty, ironic, and sometimes insightful, several lines in the movie caught me. Lines about love and relationships. Lines about being the first and the best.
Even though it does not deserve any Best Picture Award, it occupied my mind after I stepping out the cinema. I thought about how they failed and how possible the opponent could be so good (oh well, it's fiction, and things can make sense in a Hollywood movie easily.) I thought about love and relationships because the chemistry between Roberts and Owen's characters were nice and strong. Their lines did deliver certain concepts applicable to non-Hollywood worlds.

Roberts's character states that Owen's character may be the only person on earth understands her. Both of them are not trustworthy and are great con artists. They are so alike, like twins in mind. They do not compensate for each other, but one is a dupicate of the other. "You know who I am, but you still love me. I love you for this." That's very sweet and true. Love is acceptance and understanding. Love is embracing every part of your partner.
But they must not live together. In real life, they would get divorced probably in three weeks if they ever tried to sleep with each other on a daily basis. Sex might be so great (as indicated in the movie) that their life sharing could last for another three weeks but not more. All the little flaws eventually would be magnified. "How could you have done this? You knew I would be upset. You knew me!" They would say such things to hurt each other all the time. No one would want to yield his/her right to be "nicer" or give in his/h er pride of being his/herself.
They would love each other forever but they would never find a comfort zone in each other's life. Oh yeah, I could see how they ended with one person taking off, leaving no note and no trace of ever existence.

Could I foresee lasting success of romantic relationships in other movies?
Let's try.
Yes for Dan in Real Life and Stranger than Fiction (guy too serious and dull, gal happy and passionate), Lars and the Real Girl (guy needs great care, gal [the real one who talks and walks] slowly touches his heart and needs being needed).
Actually I could not think of any movie of possible lasting success of relationships immediately. I had to go on Blockbuster online to trigger my memory. It took me half an hour to give you the above-mentioned three examples.
By contrast, it is so easy to come up with probable failures such as Juno (they were simply too young), Before Sunset (their imagination of each other over the past 9 years did not neccesarily support a real relationship), Garden State (merely short attraction but not strong enough), Jerry Maguire (he loved himself much more than her or the family they were about to re-build), Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind (how to trust a person who had tried to erase you from memory?). There are also many movies with ended love. To name a few, Little Children, The Reader, The Visitor, or Atonement.

If a love story is open-ended, the couple may have a chance to have an endless relationship. However, I do not have a firm conclusion on my current thought on movies with love stories.
In real life, if two people are establishing an open-ended relationship, will the chance of having an endless relationship increase? What is an open-ended relationship?

Oh I am thinking too much, and thoughts are scattering everywhere. Questions with open-ended answers make me realize how uncreative I am...

Congratulations to homosexual men and women in Iowa, by the way. Don't ask me why I think about this now. Perhaps my brain is too stressed out in trying to figure out a cool answer for what-is-an-open-ended-relationship, and it wants to be distracted by other random thoughts.
Say "open-ended" is the opposite of "well-defined". Marriage is a well-defined relationship. Following my logic and assumption: If it is well-defined, then it is not open-ended. If it is not open-ended, will it be endless?

Let's conclude this entry no matter what. Dupilicity is a good treat for eyes and mind, but won't last forever.