The concept of an elite British boarding school as tyrannical insane asylum is a fine idea. And for the first two thirds it is well accomplished. Things begin slipping in the final third of the film though. Once again, the concept is fine; an omnipresent third person narration is revealed to be unreliable. Subtle things only once hinted at are now explicitly spelled out.
All this comes crashing down with the ending. Seeing a mass shooting carried out by a crazed ideologue is not wish fulfillment. It's incredibly disturbing given the countless cases in the past two decades. As other reviewers have said, the ending has made an otherwise fine film not age well.
All this comes crashing down with the ending. Seeing a mass shooting carried out by a crazed ideologue is not wish fulfillment. It's incredibly disturbing given the countless cases in the past two decades. As other reviewers have said, the ending has made an otherwise fine film not age well.