The End
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Oldguy69 — 9 years ago(January 16, 2017 03:13 PM)
This is not ammo for the turf war, but here's what Ford has said himself:
.because she falls in love with him again through reading [the novel]. She is liberated, by the way, at the end. This has been painful. Shes taken those rings off. Shes wiped off that lipstick, and she is not going back to that life. We dont know what the next chapter is for her, but [the previous] chapter is over.
Seems like she has a heart (which to me was fairly obvious all along) -
tigerfish50 — 9 years ago(January 16, 2017 03:23 PM)
Seems like she has a heart (which to me was fairly obvious all along)
That's what I've been saying too. It doesn't seem very likely this kind of transformation would follow an attempt at revenge. And it doesn't much sound like she's destroyed. If it was revenge, it kind of back-fired - liberation is generally considered something positive. -
Farshnoshket — 9 years ago(January 16, 2017 03:32 PM)
yes, she has a heart, like we all do, and when it's stepped on it hurts. It's something you can just forget about. It can eat at you, for a very long time, which is exactly what happened to Edward. His heart was stepped on and it hurt him for a very long time. How long? We don't really know that, but we know that something came from that hurt. His work, his novel, had meaning behind it. He gave it to the person who hurt him and she fell in love with him all over again, as women can do.
And then he stepped all over her heart.
and that is exactly why this film is so good.
It's not about sunshine and roses, it's about how love and life can hurt, so very much. -
christmastiger-16003 — 9 years ago(February 10, 2017 11:04 AM)
He gave it to the person who hurt him and she fell in love with him all over again, as women can do.
What? I think this kind of logic only flies in movies, reading a book by your ex doesn't usually make you fall in love with them. Maybe in the improbable movie situation where you just so happen to be unhappy with your life at that particular moment in time, but as OP and others have said:
How would Edward even know she was unhappy?
She called him once? People like to keep up with each other, especially if it's been 20 years. Otherwise he was taking a HUGE shot in the dark, nobody other than Susan's friend had figured out what was going on with their expenses.
Also, did he write the book with the intention of making her fall back in love with him so he could stand her up? He knew that would work? Honestly, I don't really see much in that story that would have made me fall back in love with him, but that's just me.
Or did he write the book just for himself and sent it to her to be like, "Look, I wrote a book!" and didn't give a care what she thought? If so, why was it dedicated to her and basically about her? I genuinely don't understand Edward's motives.
He really had no reason to think that Susan wanting to see him had anything to with falling back in love with him. He wrote her and her daughter as characters who were raped and murdered, I would have honestly been more creeped out by Ed than amorous.
It also seems to follow more realistic logic that she just wanted to meet him to give him feedback on the book, as that's why it appears he sent it to her in the first place.
I'm definitely with OP in that there are a lot of unanswered questions and confusing directions taken in this movie, coupled with the non-ending it felt wholly underwhelming.
She was unhappy with Edward, so I don't really know what it was about the book that made her want to go back to him. Seriously, Susan, find a new guy or learn to be single and happy with yourself because you're obviously not going to be happy with the people you've chosen so far. -
DHfilmfan — 9 years ago(January 16, 2017 04:03 PM)
She's rolling around in bed, swooning at her ex's magnificent manuscripther shower scenes mirror Tony'sshe defends a protg (that her colleagues want to replace) out of a new-found sense of commitmentshe gets all pretty and hopeful and removes her ring to meet Edward.
And for Edward, who knows NOTHING of Susan's dissatisfaction, and with NO INTENTION of winning Susan back, the manuscript was all he had to say.
There's no grand and elaborate revenge, because Edward has no such intentions either. After all, HE DIDN'T KNOW that Susan was miserable and that she would see him as a way out. It's not like Edward was sitting next to us watching this film, people.
He just stands her up at the end, because as a film, it needed closure, some scene, for us to realize that the tables had been turnednot a non-response to an email. -
Farshnoshket — 9 years ago(January 16, 2017 05:24 PM)
And for Edward, who knows NOTHING of Susan's dissatisfaction
Well I would say there was very little in the film to make us, the audience, think otherwise, except for 2 things:- We see Edward personally deliver the novel to Susan's house, and
- Susan admits calling Edward 2 years ago and Edward did not take the call.
Is this enough for the audience to question just how much Edward knows about Susan's current life? except
The elevator man in New York was Edward's younger brother!!
Bravo! Bravo!
and curtain.
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Gus-69 — 9 years ago(February 12, 2017 09:06 PM)
The big painting in which is written "revenge" foreshadows the ending. It's a revenge.
http://letterboxd.com/cremildo/ -
simbob4000 — 9 years ago(January 26, 2017 04:13 AM)
I could see how someone could miss that it's a revenge movie. After all, there was only that scene at the art gallery that was way too on the nose, you know, the one that explained exactly what the movie was about for anyone too dumb to get it, where the word REVENGE was literally in giant letters hanging on the wall.
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songod-95003 — 9 years ago(January 30, 2017 09:09 PM)
I was waiting for her to exit the restaurant and be gunned down by a hit man Edward hired!
Bu that would not be the artsy "Academy Award" ending we got.
Loved it till then. Expected so much more from the end. The build up everything was great. The acting spot on and thens**t.
This trend is dreadful. The Non-Ending. It is everywhere. Indie films use it. Cheapo D grade horror films use it. Now more and more the A list star driven films use it. With the cheapies I often feel the makers simply ran out of money! They had to stop shooting and tag on the credits! IN something like this?? It is infuriating. -
Gus-69 — 9 years ago(February 12, 2017 09:07 PM)
What bollocks. Oscar-winning movies generally have happy and obvious closures.
http://letterboxd.com/cremildo/ -
bektaskonca — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 02:50 PM)
it was simple, she did not value him and his work, he loved her and her opinion about him and his work was very important, she tossed him away like he was nothing because as her mother said you are just like me, she was a very cold person had not much feeling in her souls, her heart never raced, she never felt nor shoved emotions, reading the book she felt all that , he gave her what she did not have and confirmed by date he made the last move by not turning up so she can go back to her miserable life back, so it was a revenge motive with both players being sour and sorrow person, i mean carrying such bitterness and sorrow for 20 years ?? i personally get cancer if i felt like that from a relationship well i suppose they had to make up such story to keep audience interested after all in real life this could never happen.
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DHfilmfan — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 04:40 PM)
so it was a revenge motive with both players being sour and sorrow person, i mean carrying such bitterness and sorrow for 20 years ?? i personally get cancer if i felt like that from a relationship
Agreed. I think that's why at the end of the story, people are like, "That's it?" I think they get what happened (which you nicely summarized), but then they reevaluate whether or not they care. And given two sour and sorrowful people, one of whom hurt the other, and the other responding with a manuscript, I can't imagine too many people giving a beep
From what I understand, the novel the film was based on was really more about the power of narrative and how it invades our thoughts and experiences in real life. It was a very self-conscious and perhaps literary novel aboutnovels. All the revenge aspects and relationship aspects are just window-dressing. So I think trying to make such a literary book (about reading) into a "thriller" (rather than a prosaic story that contains a thriller) leaves the audience with a sense that some things just don't fit, or that it's trying too hard to make us care without giving us the appropriate signs for whom or what to care about. -
woodmakesitgood — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 11:43 PM)
Based on Ford's comments, and the minimal description of current Tony in the film, it seems we are to care mostly about Susan. She's apparently moving on in many different ways now. Great.
It doesn't really matter if Tony is sick, or dying, or if he got a bad Uber driver, is out for revenge, or just chickened out of dinner.
My guess is revenge, but that's just a guess, which like all of these guesses is pointless to the other major points of the story.
Plot points and continuity issues aren't really relevant here.