Spoilers Ahead:
I know Ebert calls it Noir, it has shadows and misanthropy, all thecharacters are evil but their is no moral protagonist, ergo, it cannotbe Film Noir. Please, watch Out Of The Past, Laura, Kiss Of Death: FilmNoir has a moral protagonist who is often killed or if they survive,like Mildred Pierce, they are severely damaged. That is the touchstone,take it from someone who owns hundreds of Film Noir. The shadows andeveryone but the protagonist being a rat, these are tangential: thequintessential feature is Morality wins at great cost. Often the moralprotagonist is destroyed as in: Kiss of Death, Out Of The Past, DoubleIndemnity. The issue aside, this is a great movie. The fish on the deskwhat beautiful imagery; that is the existential metaphor for thesefour. Lauren, the smiling ghoul, with the flies constantly on his body;another well done piece of symbolism. Getz's Ray is very evocative ofFargo's killer devoid of the power of speech. Ray is so lost amongevents which even Marty tries to clear up for him. Watch when Abby usesthe very same phrase Marty presciently predicted,'Ray, I don't knowwhat you're talking about, I ain't done nothing funny.' Ray's fogclears for a moment and he sees that perhaps he isn't getting the dealof the century he envisioned.
Walsh is the star of this movie: yes, they are on their own. All theirplans come unraveled little pieces of fate, a picture left here, alighter there. The whole structure of their lives collapse like a houseof cards. The fragility of human life how the structure isinterconnected, in a matrix, between these four. The movie, like thelater Coen film, No Country For Old Men, portrays the world as ameaningless interconnected web of relationships. One alteration, thekilling of Marty by Lauren, brings them all, except Abby into the flyzapper behind Marty. These little mistakes, the lighter on the desk,the picture in the safe unleash a hurricane of unintended consequences.Abby's planted gun, Lauren not shooting Marty fatally lead to anightmare for everyone involved. A very well written, suspenseful moviereplete with pop out scares. It is unexpected if it is anything. I dareanyone to tell me what is going to happen next the first showing. Thisgives it verisimilitude because life is exactly like this:unpredictable and chaotic.
We hear this out of Lauren in the opening narration. No matter how wellyou plan, life has a way of messing everything all up. It is anihilistic classic; there is no moral order here. The survivor, thefaithless wife, who utters the very words that confirm every word Martysaid about her is not a moral protagonist of Classic Film Noir. She isthe last rat standing. The film is an exceptionally scary, creepy darkas midnight treasure. It is not for the kiddies. I cannot recommend ithighly enough.