Help me with the ending
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zwot — 11 years ago(April 25, 2014 11:58 PM)
I just watched the film again and I've come around to your point of view the "Barb driving down the highway" ending does improve the film.
On first viewing I was so blown away by the "eat your f'ing fish" scene that I was distracted during the "motel/Bev's note/safety deposit box" scene that follows. That scene is more redemptive for Barb than I realized before. She doesn't leave just because it's pointless to argue with Vi, she leaves because she's horrified that Vi's willful pride stood in the way of stopping Bev's suicide.
Barb, newly aware that she's her mother, determines not to go down the same road. Showing her driving her own road helps make that clear, since her break with Vi was so abrupt. I had the advantage of watching the film on DVD and still it took me two tries to figure out what happened, so I can just imagine how shell-shocked theatergoers were uncertain about the original ending. -
Errington_92 — 10 years ago(January 02, 2016 11:53 AM)
That scene is more redemptive for Barb than I realized before.
She doesn't leave just because it's pointless to argue with Vi, she leaves because she's horrified that Vi's willful pride stood in the way of stopping Bev's suicide.
Exactly, Barb saw the devastating results bitterness can cause in a relationship. I felt that Barb was driving back home to give her marriage another try, determined never to become her Mother.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not. -
loreal3 — 11 years ago(December 26, 2014 04:10 PM)
I hate movies that end without resolution as well! As this was ending I was thinking a good ending would be for Violet to shoot herself.
This was a story about very mean people NOT strong women.
Acting was outstanding
Casting was great -
Ltay328 — 11 years ago(April 24, 2014 10:04 AM)
Well, the sign on the road in the direction she's headed says Colorado or Denver. I think it's safe to say she's headed back to her family. Otherwise, there'd be no point in showing the sign. Also, as far as her pajamas, yeah it could be a new beginning - but I took very on the surface in that, since she's headed home, she's got clothes there. She doesn't need to go back for clothes. And she can have Joanna send her purse if its really necessary.
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zwot — 11 years ago(April 26, 2014 12:20 AM)
The only thing that really bugs me about her leaving without her purse is that the sign said 645 miles to Denver. She's gonna need to buy gas. But it would've ruined the drama of the scene if she had done it any differently, so I can live with it.
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jeff-leets — 11 years ago(June 08, 2014 09:45 AM)
This response has spoiler alerts
To all that have answered previously it is all up to the viewers opinion of what everything means. What I took from it was, Barb realizes during the scene with her estranged husband where she asks him "You're never coming back to me are you Bill" then she followed with "I guess I and his response which was something to the effect of "I'll probably never really understand why will I?". To which he answers "Probably not". I think it's at that time she realizes she doesn't really know what's wrong with her. But later in the film when her daughter and her husband drive away it starts to sink in that she is like her mom. It's compounded when her sister responds to her statement of "I wasn't the one who told you it was Mom" with "What's the difference." After Barb's husband, daughter, sisters and the rest of the family take off because of all of the drama she realizes sitting with her Mom in an empty house, with her Mom acting stubborn as ever, that this is or will be her life if she does not change. When she leaves, she's leaving all of the negativity behind that her Mom represents. When she gets to the side of the road and gets out of her truck, she smiles and heads back towards denver. I think it's at that time that she lets go of all of the craziness that was her mother's influence in her life behind. That's just my opinion anyway. -
allisonjoys — 11 years ago(July 18, 2014 05:15 PM)
Strange I didn't get any of this at the end. My happy ending was the mom crying on the stairs with the caretaker woman. It tied to the beginning as if the dad knew his family well enough that the mom would be left alone after he was gone. He knew the craziness that would come and that someone would need to keep things going; cooking etc.
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pvd295 — 11 years ago(July 20, 2014 09:06 AM)
The movie should have ended as did the play - with Vi alone with her caretaker. As someone else said, her strength isolated herself from everyone.
"I prefer fantasy over reality TV - like Fox News" - B.Streisand -
moosefeathers — 11 years ago(November 10, 2014 12:07 PM)
I took her reamark "you're strong" to be condescending, to mean she wasn't and you'll realize after i'm gone. Which is exactly what happened when Vi realized she was all alone
And Barb did pick up something before she left out the door of the house, which i'm assuming was her pocketbook.
Swing away, Merrill.Merrill, swing away -
matrixflower — 11 years ago(November 28, 2014 12:43 PM)
The final straw was when Barbra realised that her mum could have saved her father. But Barbra had the good sense to know, in that moment, that her mother's and her father's reasons were complicated . considering she realised that they were both 'flucked up' . as she said to her mother.
There is way more than Barbra ever imagined . in regard to 'truths' coming out during the coming together of the family. She can't judge her mother. And she can't judge her father. Because she hasn't walked a mile in their shoes
Even though Vi let Barbra in on the 'secrets' involved in Beverly's final act .. namely the note and Vi not contacting Bev, the motel, the locked box etc. . Barbra knows that there is more to it than her mother is saying out loud there is more for Barbra to work out, with time.
She left her mother amicably .. with a hug, and a throw away line 'Yes you are the strong one Mum' or some such.
There is a reason why Beverly left a note leaving Violet to work out whether or not she wishes to 'act' on the note, and contact him. Their relationship is complicated and there are probably very understandable reasons why Violet is soothing her pain with masses of pills, and the unbearable behaviour because of it.
I think in that moment, at the end, Barbra realises her parents relationship with each other is way more complicated than she can, at this time, fathom .. namely in view of the secrets (which her father's funeral bringing all the family back for a brief time, together) .. revealed. There is stuff there that even Violet has yet to figure out - about herself and about Bev.
It was a mixture of deep emotions and confusion that propelled Barbra out of that door to escape in the truck. She didn't want to leave her mother in more of a mess than she already was. Hence the hug for her mother and her agreement with her, before she fled.
Matrix
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olliemankz — 10 years ago(November 22, 2015 03:55 PM)
After reading the comments, I have to say that I can see how Barb fled without a backward look or stopping to get anything if she was trying to get out of there. However, and I'll probably be quite alone in this, I think it was a rather lily-livered thing to do.
Frankly, had I been in Barb's shoes and I kinda am I think what might have been the more righteous thing to do would have been to realize that she was very like her mother and possibly accept her fate being there to prop up her mom. But, you know, things aren't usually like that, anyway. Most "Barbs" would have a job to go back to, which would demand that they at least clear things up. And a 14-year-old daughter? Okay, I guess the husband could raise her, and the daughter would probably prefer that. But she also wouldn't want to be abandoned by her mother. What the daughter needs is for her mother to show her that she's the most important thing in her life and for the father to show that, too, vis a vis his life. Barb did let her daughter know how much she loved her with the little speech in the back of the car when they went to identify Bev. I guess Barb; could accept her fate and stay with Vi, who might not live that much longer anyway or might live for decades more out of spite, lol. But I still think it might have been hard for the daughter. However, summers in that place might have been halcyon. What Barb needed to do was the right thing, which I'm not sure is what she did.
Howver, also, there was the little thing, or really the big, climactic, thing, about Vi revealing that she cared more about money or at least besting her husband at his own game or something than saving him. Which in a way makes the movie moot, when you really think about it why was Vi worried? Didn't she know what her husband was going to do? I had wondered how she, who had seemed so in love with him, could have taken his death so well. But this suggests she was nuts. And why would Bev off himself? Perhaps he loved her so much, he wanted her to show him that she loved him and that if she didn't save him, he would go to his grave with a broken heart but essentially have given up that his beloved was sane. -
OneGettingOlderAndBetter — 9 years ago(April 29, 2016 09:43 AM)
Even translated, that is difficult to get at.
Watching the trailers on the DVD, I ended up watching "Les yeux jaunes des crocodiles", that is distributed by the same company and deals around the theme of" dysfunctional family " too. That show is weird, too, though it is difficult not to realize how simple it is.
Now, back to Aoc, it looks that the mother admits to her daughter that she got a note from her unfaithfull husband, kind of asking her for help. And she accuses him of a kind of ? complot, competition ? stating that she did not react to his threat, and that her procrastinating was a kind of victory over him.
At that time of the movie Violet is a bit obviously set as an abstract pet hate thing. Some people might like it, and some might get bored when hate is not their teacup.
Maybe Barbara feels the same and "you are the strongest" is a polite way to leave the place as quick as she can, as she might be interested in another agenda. For example getting after her younger sister and grab her before she jumps in a lake with or without her cumbersome partner, or anything sensible that can be done about the present results of past deeds. (Gene check would be on my own list, just out of curiosity and for fun) Then she could get back and do whatever she can. Violet is not alone, she can wait a bit. Isn't procrastinating her thing ?
On the other hand, she might be the abstract character and react in an abstract way I do not know about, ending up getting home in her pj's in a borrowed car
Who can say ?
Manelle
"to tax and to please, no more to love and to be wise, is not given to men"