I recently received it and watched it twice back to back. Very suble movie and deserves deep thoughts. I understand Tom must've been frustrated and sad after he and Alice said good-bye when they meant to say something else, but don't understand why Kathy arrived after Alice left and why Tom didn't respond. I appreciate if anyone enlightens me with the reason for this. Does the book explain it?
shareHaven't watched this for several years, so I might have got this wrong, but this I how I remember it goes.
There's an old guy carrying a book coming towards the church as Colin Firth leaves - you never see him and Firth in the same shot, although the way it's edited, at first it looks like they're staring at each other.
In one of the last shots you see the book that the old fella's carrying and it's the one Tom had earlier: in other words this is him as a very old man revisiting the church after an absence of many years. The scene of Kathy Ellerbeck coming in and setting a basket down (I think this is what she does) is all in his memory (hence the slight reverb on her voice, which makes it seem a bit otherworldly). It might even be the footage from the first time she appears: I'm not sure.
My memory is that the last thing you see is a huge smile on the old man's face as he looks at the altarpiece. Despite all his struggles with the Rev. Keach, and not getting it together with Alice, years later his memories are only happy ones.
I've disagreed with family members about this, by the way.
Bloody brilliant film: the end always makes me slightly tearful.
@persistenceofvision
There's an old guy carrying a book coming towards the church as Colin Firth leaves - you never see him and Firth in the same shot, although the way it's edited, at first it looks like they're staring at each other.
In one of the last shots you see the book that the old fella's carrying and it's the one Tom had earlier: in other words this is him as a very old man revisiting the church after an absence of many years. The scene of Kathy Ellerbeck coming in and setting a basket down (I think this is what she does) is all in his memory (hence the slight reverb on her voice, which makes it seem a bit otherworldly). It might even be the footage from the first time she appears: I'm not sure.
My memory is that the last thing you see is a huge smile on the old man's face as he looks at the altarpiece. Despite all his struggles with the Rev. Keach, and not getting it together with Alice, years later his memories are only happy ones.
Hi ,it is in the book no reason , just depressed after not expressing his love to alice keach, gem of a book,film, and film score.
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