A brilliant movie, surely one of the masterpieces of 21st century cinema to date. It is its fate to be under-rated and under-appreciated, but to those who can see, its genius is obvious and compelling.
While the identity of the murderer is definitely NOT the point, it IS clearly and unambiguously revealed; however, judging from countless misinterpretations and misidentifications, both here and overheard in the cinema when I saw it, this apparently counts as a spoiler even for a lot of people who HAVE already seen the film...
SPOILERS The killer is seen only in passing. He is the man, called "Oliver" by his wife, in the "Land of Christmas" shop. If you re-watch the movie closely, this should be apparent. If you need more explicitly listed evidence, keep reading.
The killer, known as the Magician, is very tall, to the point where one of the victims calls him a giant. Note the shot from above the door of the "Land of Christmas" shop when Nicholson enters. The camera is inside the shop, above the door, looking down towards the floor. The bell that rings catches our attention, but if you look again you will see how unusually high this door is - see how much taller the door is than Nicholson? Much higher than a normal-sized door. This shot is also repeated near the very end of the movie, in the sequence where all the clues to the killer's identity are summarised.
When we do glimpse Oliver in the shop, in the scene where Nicholson enters the "Land of Christmas" asking for directions to the girl's grandmother's house, he has the grey hair that we see the killer has when driving towards the rendezvous at the end of the film (which he never reaches due to the accident). We learn subsequently that the girl would visit the "Land of Christmas", also.
After the killer has started his drive towards the rendezvous, as part of the "clue summarising" we return to the "Land of Christmas", with his wife calling out for him.
The absolute clincher, though, is the fact that the "Land of Christmas" sells small chocolate "porcupines". (We see his wife mention them and take out a box of them when she is searching for him.) It was of course these that he would give to his victims, as depicted in the child's drawing.
Incidentally, the point of the close-up of the rear-vision mirror in the burning car is to show the small porcupine figurine hanging from it. The Tom Noonan character is a decoy, and definitely not the killer.
Hopefully anyone re-watching it after reading the above will be able to see for themselves. :) One fascinating angle I've not seen commented on is the way Penn's tirade at Nicholson at the end of the movie would, word for word, apply just as well as if Nicholson had been abusing her daughter himself... Rewatch the scene and see how well that jibes.
While the identity of the murderer is definitely NOT the point, it IS clearly and unambiguously revealed; however, judging from countless misinterpretations and misidentifications, both here and overheard in the cinema when I saw it, this apparently counts as a spoiler even for a lot of people who HAVE already seen the film...
SPOILERS The killer is seen only in passing. He is the man, called "Oliver" by his wife, in the "Land of Christmas" shop. If you re-watch the movie closely, this should be apparent. If you need more explicitly listed evidence, keep reading.
The killer, known as the Magician, is very tall, to the point where one of the victims calls him a giant. Note the shot from above the door of the "Land of Christmas" shop when Nicholson enters. The camera is inside the shop, above the door, looking down towards the floor. The bell that rings catches our attention, but if you look again you will see how unusually high this door is - see how much taller the door is than Nicholson? Much higher than a normal-sized door. This shot is also repeated near the very end of the movie, in the sequence where all the clues to the killer's identity are summarised.
When we do glimpse Oliver in the shop, in the scene where Nicholson enters the "Land of Christmas" asking for directions to the girl's grandmother's house, he has the grey hair that we see the killer has when driving towards the rendezvous at the end of the film (which he never reaches due to the accident). We learn subsequently that the girl would visit the "Land of Christmas", also.
After the killer has started his drive towards the rendezvous, as part of the "clue summarising" we return to the "Land of Christmas", with his wife calling out for him.
The absolute clincher, though, is the fact that the "Land of Christmas" sells small chocolate "porcupines". (We see his wife mention them and take out a box of them when she is searching for him.) It was of course these that he would give to his victims, as depicted in the child's drawing.
Incidentally, the point of the close-up of the rear-vision mirror in the burning car is to show the small porcupine figurine hanging from it. The Tom Noonan character is a decoy, and definitely not the killer.
Hopefully anyone re-watching it after reading the above will be able to see for themselves. :) One fascinating angle I've not seen commented on is the way Penn's tirade at Nicholson at the end of the movie would, word for word, apply just as well as if Nicholson had been abusing her daughter himself... Rewatch the scene and see how well that jibes.