At first, I wasn't into this movie and it was getting on my nerves and pissing me off, and then I was glued to the screen but it didn't make sense, and now that it's over I think I get what was going on so I can explain it better.
First, the movie starts off as a college girl is getting drunk at a party, and the camerawork is sloppy and the movie is disjointed. I thought it was just a bad movie at first, but now having seen the whole thing, I think the filmmakers wanted to disorient us because the character was drunk, so they wanted us sloppy and confused as well. I think further viewing of the film will bear out this interpretation, but that doesn't necessarily mean I agree with their choice, because it makes the movie really annoying and confusing and a lot of people will probably give up on it if they aren't as dedicated as I am.
The young woman drives home drunk (because she's a GENIUS) and hits something on the way. She gets home, pukes (and we get a lovely camera shot from inside the toilet...ew) and then discovers that she hit a guy on the way home, and he's still embedded to the bumper of her car (she didn't notice him before because, like I said, she's a genius). I won't spoil as much as the rest of the reviews I've read, but suffice it to say that she has the WORST luck in the universe and she picked the WORST possible guy to hit with her car. The second part of the movie, ushered in with the discovery of the guy on her bumper, is also very disjointed, and again I thought, further bad filmmaking. But now, re-watching it, I again think this was INTENTIONAL as we're supposed to be as discombobulated and confused as Mary here. Again, not the best choice, since a lot of people might give up at this point because the movie is confusing and they don't think it's going to get any better. There's one scene where Mary is in the dark woods with her boyfriend and there's just a lone flashlight beam illuminating everything for about twenty minutes of screen time, and we can hear stuff going on but we can't SEE anything, and it's annoying and confusing. I'm sure the filmmakers thought this was a great idea, but it's grounds for a lot of people to turn off the movie, or at least fast forward. We all know those "darkness" scenes in movies where everything is visible but only illuminated with a faint blue glow are bullshit, but filmmakers do that so the audience can SEE what's going on, and if people don't realize you're trying something different by leaving the screen black for twenty minutes they might just assume you have no idea how to make a movie and turn it off before you have a chance to show them your filmmaking skills later in the movie.
The third act of this movie is...I don't know how to describe it, but it's what made me decide that these filmmakers might know what they're doing, even if they don't bother to try and let us viewers in on the secret. Without giving too much away, Mary becomes the target of revenge here, and the rest of the movie feels kind of like a bad acid trip as it gets more and more OUT THERE and I kind of stared at the screen openmouthed with shock. It gets gory and nasty and mean-spirited, which I like, and it definitely scares me away from ever driving drunk, so effective there. I won't tell you what happens, but there are plenty of other reviews that WILL tell you what happens. Suffice it to say any sympathy you had for the guy Mary hit is GONE and therefore there's no one left to really feel sorry for, since Mary isn't very likable herself. It's still kind of interesting to watch, though, and the ending is darkly hilarious. Overall, I think this movie is better than it looks, but you have to be patient in order to see that. I'm glad I watched it, but I wish it hadn't taken over an hour for me to realize the movie knew what it was doing.
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