Kevin O'Leary Has One Big Problem With Marty Supreme's Ending

This article gets into some spoilers for "Marty Supreme."

In Josh Safdie's new film "Marty Supreme," the irascible hustler and serial-bad-decision-maker Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) aims to travel abroad to represent the United States in a series of high-profile table tennis tournaments. Throughout the film, Marty falls into and out of the good graces of a potential benefactor, a man named Milton Rockwell ("Shark Tank" co-host Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" O'Leary), the very, very wealthy husband of an American movie star named Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). 

Early in the film, Milton offers Marty a sweetheart deal to play an exhibition match in Japan against a player he had previously lost to ... and lose again for theatrical reasons. Marty's enormous ego can't stand the thought of losing an exhibition match, and he refuses. By the end of the film's prolonged running time, however, Marty has made so many terrible decisions and lost so much of his hustled money that he decides to return to Rockwell and grovel/accept. Milton takes every opportunity to humiliate Marty, which may please the audience; Marty is a cad who hurts people and gets people killed via his incessant hustling.

In fact, Marty was such a scoundrel that O'Leary disliked the ending of "Marty Supreme." We'll get into spoilery details below, but O'Leary felt that Marty got off the hook at the end of the movie, when he should have faced harsher consequences for his sins. O'Leary said as much in a recent interview with Variety. One of Marty's many sins was ignoring and mistreating his girlfriend Rachel (Odessa A'Zion), whom he impregnated. The fact that he gets to have a teary reunion with her at the end rubbed O'Leary the wrong way.

O'Leary rightfully pointed out that Marty betrayed everyone throughout "Marty Supreme," including Milton. The idea was that Milton would pay Marty a handful of cash for throwing the exhibition match and then kiss a pig on camera. Humiliating the visiting American player, Milton figured, would play very well to the Japanese viewers. Also, everyone could sense that Marty was arrogant anyway, so seeing his ego destroyed would have been cathartic. But then Marty asks for a rematch instead, fouling up Milton's plans. Milton points out that Marty's money would be withheld, but Marty doesn't care. This time, he wants dignity. 

And then, in winning his dignity, Marty is allowed a gentle catharsis where he gets to run home, be with Rachel, and hold his infant baby. That, O'Leary felt, was absurd. Evidently, he argued with the film's writers on this point, hoping it would be changed. In fact, O'Leary had a darker idea for an ending, saying: 

"I told them I was really unsatisfied with the ending, for my character to get f***ed over like that. This kumbaya ending is absurd. [...] [Marty] f***ed everybody. [...] Why should he not live a life in misery in perpetuity after that? [...] Rachel has to die. She has to die in childbirth."

Perhaps Marty deserved a miserable ending for a life poorly lived. All that hard work, and his sins are still punished.

There is also another surreal moment at the end of "Marty Supreme" wherein Milton confronts Marty about his turncoat nature. Milton, seeing that Marty is about to cost him a lot of money, pulls him aside to threaten him. Milton announces that he shouldn't be angered, as he is, in actuality, a centuries-old vampire that has every intention of biting Marty and drinking his blood. Marty — and the audience — are a little baffled by the announcement, as it is a very strange way to threaten someone. If he actually were a vampire, that would be even stranger, as there were no supernatural elements to "Marty Supreme" besides. The full speech runs: 

"Let me explain to you. I was born in 1601. I'm a vampire. I've been around forever. I've met many Marty Mausers over the centuries. Some of them crossed me, some of them weren't straight. They weren't honest. And those are the ones that are still here. You go out and win that game, you're gonna be here forever too. And you'll never be happy. You will never be happy."

O'Leary would have liked the screenplay better if it had turned out his character actually was a vampire and actually bit Marty. Indeed, that idea was being bandied around during production, and O'Leary said that the filmmakers "went as far as to make digital teeth." And, in a weird way, O'Leary is right. A gentile businessman sucking the blood out of a Jewish hustler would have not only punished Marty but also added to the film's themes of exploitation and Jewish identity. "I know that sounds nuts," O'Leary added, "but to me that would be the right punishment."