Shape of Things

I'm accustomed to viewing the resolution of a movie as a time where conflicts are wrapped up, but watching The Shape of Things reminded me of another meaning of resolve that I'd learned in some long-ago Bio lab. Viewing through the microscope we would slide the focusing dial which would resolve* the image.
In certain movies, there is this feeling of focusing- of swiftly and sharply turning on something which was once obscured. These tend to be movies made from plays, probably because they are seldom side-tracked by action. Streetcar Named Desire and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, produce this feeling. Memory is failing at extending the list but I think I would add The Boys in the Band, Long days Journey in to Night and Hamlet.
These movies tend to have two other things in common: a feeling of claustrophobia and a climax of drastically higher tension. Partially the claustrophobia may be due to the nature of plays turned into films and all movies tend to have a climax. But an alternate list of movies doesn't have these traits: Angels in America, Romeo and Juliet, 13 Conversations About One Thing.
[the next section is confusing if you haven't seen the movie]
The Shape's resolution is a hat trick not only pulling it off with the appropriate tension and consequences but also cerebral. It creates its own framework for viewing it. But this framework isn't firm, it also calls itself into question. The separating of component parts is, strangely, another meaning of resolve.

*A brief look at dictionary.com does not confirm that my memory of the word has a valid meaning. It does list "to find a solution" and "to change" which if combined indicate this. But perhaps I am only thinking of focus and have gotten this mixed in with the resolution of the magnification.