Bummer (sorta). Two years later I finally got around to listening to Altman's commentary track, and apparently the film is nowhere near as complex as the Rashomonian masterpiece I thought it might be. In other words, it's not an intricate brain twister that challenges the audience to solve the puzzle (like Kurosawa's Rashomon) but, according to Altman, it's an impressionistic film. As he describes, it's like a watercolor painting with indefinite forms that allows the audience to draw their own outlines.

I mean, yeah I get it. Watercolors are art. Mood music is art. Not everything has to have a clear message. But given Altman's high praise of Kurosawa (whom he mentions again in the commentary), I was hoping this would be more in the spirit of Kurosawa--not impressionism but clear mathematical precision. Sharp lines and logical forms that are softened only by their own intricacy. Like a drawing made of so many tiny lines you have to step back to understand the whole. Here, using Altman's analogy, we're given the bigger whole and we're challenged to step in and draw the tiny lines.

I guess that's kinda cool too.

Altman does mention some points that are clear and deliberate. This is a story about identity. The 2 main characters have essentially no identity of their own. Millie (Shelly Duvall) is a lonely character, ignored by everyone around her so she builds a delusional world based on things like magazine advertisements and her own imagination. Pinky (Sissy Spacek) is has no identity either, but she's more like an amnesiac with no past, trying to figure herself out. Or as Altman says you can imagine she's like an alien who lands on earth with no identity so she mimics the people she sees. In this case she's mimicking Millie who herself has a false identity.

There's one cryptic scene (very mild spoiler ahead) where Pinky's parents come to see her, and Pinky says she's never seen them before. We the audience never get the explanation... who is lying? In the commentary Altman shows his cards a little, and he casually mentions that the "parents" seem a little too old to be her actual parents. But ultimately it's up to us to decide. Aha... here's where I think Altman himself is hinting that they aren't her real parents (too old), and perhaps they themselves have their own false identity, a shared delusion that Pinky is the daughter they lost or never had. Notice how they leave the story after that. Would real parents give up and walk away from their own daughter?

Like I said, still a great movie. Obviously very thought provoking. But it doesn't have 1 solution (at least none that Altman admits to). Detectives & mathematicians put away your magnifying glasses and slide rules. This is a watercolor.