Cloverfield's unanswered questions

Questions. More questions. Even more questions. No answers. The end. This, is Cloverfield.

A godzilla-esque story about the destruction of New York (as seen through the limited vantage point of a small group of friends) the movie not only leaves you hanging in every conceivable way, but leaves you spinning, too.

The latter stems mostly from the way the filmmakers unabashedly serve up images of 9/11 as a sky-scraper high reptile ravages the city. Our first real hint of the destruction is a familiar scene: a building collapses under its own weight, sending plumes of smoke hurtling through the streets of Manhattan.

Pushing all that aside, you're left with a thinly-plotted film that reveals next to nothing. Where did the monster come from? Was it ever defeated? Which characters lived? Which characters died? You can't really be sure. But still, one thing is clear from the beginning: the ending isn't happy, seeing how you're told that you're watching highly classified camcorder footage that was recovered from the area "formerly known as Central Park."

On some levels, the unanswered questions do serve to heighten the tension. You see only what one of the characters sees as he totes a camcorder through the city, giving just hints of things like the military response as he and his friends manage to stumble into the monster's path. The story is claustrophobic, operating in a maddening vacuum that, if it doesn't leave you disappointed, will make you ill at ease.

And that's Cloverfield's genius. This constricted style could've been disastrous, but the filmmakers played it fairly smart throughout; the hints at the broader story are usually enough to satiate. And when it comes down to the really important stuff, like the monster, they give you enough. By the end, you've seen so much of its undulating jaws and flailing tentacles that you're begging for a reprieve that doesn't come.

Still, a little more disclosure wouldn't have killed them or their movie, especially where the main characters are concerned. Not knowing can be scary... it can also be aggravating. While Cloverfield is an obvious top draw on its opening weekend, its shelf-life is going to drop quickly as word about its unanswered questions spread.