MovieChat Forums > The Innocent (1995) Discussion > What The Hell Was That All About?

What The Hell Was That All About?


Did anybody understand the ending? Why did she suddenly hate him and not want to go with him? Aside from the fact that he was a complete boob and liked to smack her around when drunk? Were we supposed to assume that she had been playing him the whole time? The whole fact that the Anthony Hopkins character supposedly, completely out of nowhere, has feelings for her and is willing to take such risks for her was totally against the character's persona that he had built throughout the entire movie.

Was I the only one confused?

Somebody help me understand it.

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this is sometimes the trouble with adaptations from a book - even though the author wrote the screenplay!

so - in the book maria and leonard go thru a dramatic sort of 'emotional freeze' on their being together, after doing the deed on otto on their engagement night - which is all far more horrific and traumatically portrayed in the book. they both are really relieved about being separated by his return home, which at the time they say will be temporary.

as for his knocking her about - in the book it's explained that leonard fancies that she wants a bit of rough and domination from him - but he's misjudged/projected this, and so it all goes wrong.

after the russian break-in to the tunnel, glass goes to maria's flat, to check her out - and discovers the truth. his interest in hushing up the affair is that it wouldn't redound well to the allied forces in berlin. so he uses his american clout to get the german police to bury the matter.

glass arranges leonard's quick getaway, and takes him to the airport. maria is late getting there for the farewell, and all leoanard sees as he's leaving is maria, having just arrived, with glass, on the observation balcony. he's been slightly suspicious and jealous before and jumps to the wrong conclusion. meanwhile, in the course of events of their own lives, glass and maria actually get together, move to the US and have a life together. at the end of book leonard goes on a sort of pilgrimage back to berlin, and while there reads again the letter he's just receivbed from her, all those years after the events of 1955, and explaining her position and her life since then. their actual meeting with the question mark of whether they might get together is something done for the movie. (in the book leonard has also moved on, had a family etc.)

also - leonard's neighbour downstairs is a spy for the russians, and telephones them to raid the tunnel that nite, while the suitcases with the sensitive equipment are there for just one night (which is what leonard told him), while leonard simultaneously goes to a cafe to deliver his intelligence about the tunnel to the other side so that they'll raid it and cover up his predicament - not to be told himself by someone there that the raid has already taken place. so he leaves under the impression that the raid happened as result of his betrayal - more good reason for getting out and going home quickly - and only learns later that it was coincidental, and not down to him.

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who?

What is the sound an imploding pimp makes?

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Beats me. I haven't seen it.

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