Two Pigeons--My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: A man secretly moves into his real estate agent's apartment for revenge. 

One moment of something really bad happening to you can cause a series of events that changes a person. That incident either makes you stronger to withstand the pressure or breaks you down.

Two pigeons is basically a revenge story with slices of dark humor in it. It reminded me of an article I read about revenge and forgiveness. The article pointedly stated that holding on to resentment is like venom that will destroy your life. Revenge is never the answer and it is always better to accept that an injustice has been done to you and move on with your life.

I didn’t agree with the article at that time. Unless someone doesn’t get a taste of their own medicine, how will they improve as a person? What if they commit that wrongdoing again? How many people will you have to see suffer your fate? An eye for an eye can make the world blind, but what if the world is already blind to the injustice you have had to suffer?

TWO PIGEONS (FREEHOLD) Movie Plot 

Two pigeons starts off with a man (Hussein) waking up in the morning and going off about his daily routine. He is stingy with his milk and tea bags, possibly because he cannot afford it or is plain miserly, that is left for you to guess. He showers, uses the bathroom, brushes his teeth, has breakfast, dresses up in colorful suits and walks out the door.

Minutes later, another man emerges from a hidden spot. He’s tall and lanky and wearing the tiniest briefs. He follows the same routine, making sure only to use a minute amount of all of Hussein’s food so that he wouldn’t know something is amiss. To the point, he even uses his mouthwash but spits it back into the bottle.

At first, you think he’s just a homeless man who talks to the pigeons on the balcony in a foreign language. He probably doesn’t have a place to stay in pricey London so is squatting in someone’s apartment.

It isn’t long before we are shown his true intentions and that is when he uses Hussein’s face towel to clean his crotch and put it back neatly. Or when he mixes aspirin in his glass that causes Hussein to become violently ill. Or when he changes the time written on a post-it note causing Hussein to miss an important meeting.

The question now is: why is he doing this?

TWO PIGEONS Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

The answer comes in subtitles as this tall unshaven man narrates his story like a play and the actors are the pigeons. We find out that the man was a client of the realtor. His girlfriend had become pregnant and wanted to move to a nice flat in London. They had put up a sizeable chunk of their savings as a deposit but the realtor had “gazumped” them causing them to lose everything as they had already put up a notice in their old flat.

Frightened by the prospect of being homeless when the baby arrives, the girlfriend becomes sick and loses the baby. The man says he lost the girlfriend too.

Hearing this story, you cannot help but sympathize with this man but hey, Hussein doesn’t come off as a terrible person either.

After the man succeeds in breaking up Hussein and his girlfriend, he plans an attack on his career by sending Hussein’s boss a picture of his private area. As well as his mother.

Fired from his job and alienated by his friends and family, Hussein gets sicker by the day, thanks to the stranger’s mixing of medicines.

Of all the times to get caught, it is when Hussein is having a private moment with himself and drops the remote under his bed, that he brushes against the stranger’s face.

He freaks out as the stranger makes his appearance known and admits his revenge plan. Hussein pleads with him, stating he was only doing his job and he was expected to do just that with all his clients.

But the stranger doesn’t hear a word of it and locks him up in a freezer he had ordered from Hussein’s credit card.

In the end, you see the man not only following Hussein’s daily routine but now also shaving and wearing his clothes. His revenge is complete.

Hussein on the other hand, tries fruitlessly to call his mother for help who is still pissed off at him for sending a private picture.

This is the kind of story, where you do feel conflicted. Hussein was only doing his job. That is how the world works if some money is to be made. You can see him genuinely feeling bad about it. The other man looks like a villain in his life and it is utterly disgusting to watch him play out his revenge plan.

However, when you hear his story, you do feel bad but that is just for the tiniest moment.

Watch this movie, not over dinner and only if you have a strong stomach.

Scare scale: 2/5