The phrase is the gardner's mispronounciation of "bad for grass" in reference to the salt in the goldfish pool. He seems an insignificant character, but he holds an important key to solving the death of Hollis Mulwray. It's not until he finally listens to him that he begins to figure it all out. Similarly, he can't understand Evelyn's situation until he finally listens to her. Both instances show Jake guided by his assumptions and presumptions about women and "invisible," marginalized people. He doesn't see them, just as he doesn't see the clue (Cross's bifocals) right in front of his face, Jake's "bad glasses."
Right. It's almost as if earlier on in the movie, Jake believed he could solve the problems on his own. He was blind in noticing that these two (the Asian man cleaning the pool and Evelyn) were two of the most important components in discovering who was responsible for the movement of the water outside of L.A. along with the death of Hollis Mulwray. This movie was very interesting and had many unexpected twists and resulted in a bit of a sick ending as the police did not seem to be able to do anything to stop Cross. The order of the events as they occurred in the movie seemed to almost weave into how the movie ended so harshly. If Jake had been able to find out certain clues earlier, maybe there would have been more of a chance that the authorities could bring in Cross or at least Evelyn and her daughter could have run away to Mexico.
ReplyDeleteOne of his big mistakes is being in such a hurry to clear up things with Noah Cross. Better to wait until Evelyn and Katherine are safely in Mexico before tying up that loose end.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I missed something, but why did he tell everyone to go to Chinatown? Was it because he wanted them to wait so he could explain everything and bring justice to Cross? I keep thinking that if Evelyn had just escaped to Mexico and Jake had not confronted Cross and "let sleeping dogs lie" everything would have eventually blown over and Evelyn would still be alive. Of course, the police were still questioning him but they didn't have any hard evidence against him. And even Jake's investigating got him in that mess.
DeleteAt times it seems that even though Jake is the most noble characters, his curiosity helps get Evelyn and himself into trouble.
Yeah that was the only part that bothered me about the movie. After we get the scene with revelation about Katherine he sends his associates and everyone to Chinatown. Then he pulls a fast one on the cops, even though at that point he realized Cross did it. Why not bring that information to the cops, because he just basically insured that they weren't going to listen to him later on. That kind of took me out of the movie that had been up until then very good. I think it just went on to long after we get that powerful scene with Jake and Evelynn.
DeleteI think Jake had them go to Chinatown because he thought they would be safe there and no one would follow or notice them there (what happens in vegas, stays in vegas). I don't think even the cops liked going there either. I was also perplexed at the end when the cops didn't fire at Evelyn until she was driving away. They too failed to listen or pay attention to what was really going on, but then it did seem clear that Cross owned the cops (the organization).
DeleteWhen the Asian man first tells Jake that line, and we see a quick glimpse of something in the pool, I thought it was a body. But I wish Jake would have gone sooner to the pool again. I guess it's just part of Jake's fate to discover it all how he did.
ReplyDeleteI think he told everyone to go to Chinatown to buy time and figure out what he was going to do.