Movies That Evolve In the Head

In the recent Scorsese's Return thread, the discussion stumbled into a tangent I think would be interesting to continue. And that is, how often does your opinion of a movie evolve in the week or so after seeing it?

For me, there are plenty of times when I come out of a movie excited by it, only to discover my enthusiasm dissipating like morning mist mere hours after the credits roll. Usually these are adrenaline-packed blockbusters that make nice rides but are too insubstantial to have staying power. Some of these are still good movies, and others I just took a while to recognize as bad.

More interestingly, sometimes a movie bewilders me, and I don't know what to make of it or how to relate to it -- but it won't leave my head in the days to follow, and up to a week later I figure out what it's all about, and suddenly it becomes a movie I really really like. This happened most notably for me with Barton Fink, by the Coen Brothers, and Short Cuts, by Robert Altman. Both movies left me at a loss when the credits rolled, and my first question was, "What was THAT all about?" But they just wouldn't go away. They wouldn't disappear from my mind as so many movies do. Something compelling was in there, and it wouldn't leave my head until I figured it out. We'll be talking more about these movies on future episodes of the podcast, so I don't want to get sidetracked talking about them here.

My main question is -- what movies has this happened to YOU with? What movies did you come out liking or disliking, only to discover that opinion reverses itself later?

It makes me wonder how often this happens to professional critics, and how often they get stuck defending the wrong opinion that made it into print.