Roger Bartlett's unpublished review

The following review notes were found amongst Roger's personal effects. An usher at the cinema has told the Coroner Mr Bartlett had been semi-conscious in the toilets for 36 hours. As no ticket butt was found in his pockets, the subject of the review, if any, remains unknown:

By ROGER BARTLETT
I saw a film on Friday night at the Odeon. It's had some glowing reviews – but it proves that the only opinion you can rely on is your own. Thankfully, it was much better than the trailer, which made it look very heavy handed and predictable, and seemed to give away so much of the plot in thirty seconds that I stopped viewing it in case it gave away the ending.

For the first hour, the film was very impressive, slowly building up the tension and very plausibly developing the story, with believable characters saying and doing believable things. Then it started abandoning each of these standards, by letting the hero find out sensitive information too easily, blabbing about what he's found out to people he has no reason to trust, doing stupid things, and getting out of tricky situations too easily. Finally, it all ends too suddenly, and I was left wondering what the fuss was about, and why anyone would be killed over it, since any journalist could have uncovered it easily.

After the movie, about midnight, I was waiting in the foyer, while everyone shuffled past after exiting the many other cinemas. Several attendants and ushers passed by me. About two minutes later, as I was walking down the stairs they turned off all the lights without warning. I yelled, but no one answered, so I kept going in the dark. Then someone saw or heard me and turned the lights back on until I left. When I left the building, I found there were no cars or pedestrians to be seen, and every one of the busy cafes and bars and restaurants I'd passed on the way to the cinema were closed.

So imagine my surprise when I [illegible]