So I've seen Minority Report twice now (gotta keep my streak going...), and I've been thinking about Noah's question, as to whether it ends in the right place. I'll try to keep this discussion spoiler-free, but you've been warned!

On the one hand, I'm glad that the film moves beyond its first possible ending, if only because I wouldn't have missed that L.A. Confidential-type moment of recognition for the world. (You know the scene I'm talking about....) On the other hand, as a whole, I don't think the last twenty minutes really work: the resolution of the murder plot is ingenious, in its own way, but more appropriate to a routine thriller than the kind of movie Minority Report showed promise of becoming. (Think of the scene where Cruise's wife figures out what's going on: as the reviewer on Slate observes, that kind of slip-up would be more appropriate to an old episode of Murder She Wrote.) However, my opinion may change over time: I once felt the same way about the ending of L.A. Confidential, after all, and these days I find very little to argue with in that particular movie. And I can think of no higher praise than to say that Minority Report ranks with L.A. Confidential as one of the most technically accomplished studio films I've ever seen.

There are a bunch of small implausibilities in Minority Report's plot, of course, although the movie is so wonderfully polished and assembled that it seems almost unfair to quibble. There is, however, one major hole in the story that has been bothering me for a while and which, based on my second viewing, doesn't seem to have a solution. Since it involves giving the ending away, however, I think I'll hold off until I know we've all seen it, or until I can figure out a way of explaining the problem in a non-revealing fashion.