Just saw Deadly Illusions on Netflix. In a nutshell, it's a fairly good thriller about a writer (Mary) who may or may not be imagining scenes in her book which have her hiring a seductive, psychotic nanny who seduces her, kills her friend, and almost kills her husband.
The nub of the narrative, then, is whether or not we're witnessing a lurid imagination, or a terrible mistake in hiring. The few reviews I've read seem to think it's the latter -- that Grace/Margaret is indeed a split personality prude/insane seductress. They cite the final scene, in which Mary visits Grace in a psych ward. But I'm not so sure.
Because, how do we know that the final psych ward scene is not part of Mary's new novel? That's the problem with any kind of story in which the imagination of a character could be the essence of what we're reading or seeing on a screen. And Deadly Illusions, having raised this possibility, does an insufficient job in resolving it in the end.
To be clear, I have nothing at all against unclear endings. I thought the ending of The Sopranos, for example, in which we don't know if Tony lives or dies, was a sheer masterpiece. But that's because the two possibilities, life or death, were brilliantly given almost perfectly equal weight. Obliging viewers to make their own decisions.
Not so the ending of Deadly Illusions. Which is why I said the movie was "fairly good". Look, it takes a lot of work to get an ambiguous ending like this just right. Deadly Illusions, though offering a very enjoyable ride, just didn't do this in the end.
See also The Sopranos End and the Closure Junkies
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