Wicker Park vs. (spoilers)

I have just seen both movies (enjoyed them both, actually) but wanted to comment on the different endings.

Wicker Park has the traditional Hollywood ending (actually based on Judeo-Christian philosophy that "progress is possible in human endeavors" and that liars and meddlers should not benefit from their bad actions).

However "The Apartment" (as is so much of European movie-making now) is based on the older pagan ideas of the "fickleness of Fate" and of the human heart. Plus the "meddler" (if not outright evil one) in The Apartment was apparently going to be rewarded anyway after all her machinations.

Where the movie breaks down artistically and plotwise is where Max does indeed choose Alice at the end - betraying his own good male friend AND his own obsession (if not true love) for Lisa - not to mention his current love and almost fiance. The only way this makes sense is if all 3 of the main characters are incredibly shallow in their emotions and relationships - almost a "whoever I sleep with last is best..." ethos. And maybe they are - Lisa found "true love" with the married man Daniel as her rebound after Max mysteriously left her (from her POV) and fairly quickly, at that. Max moved on to his own fiance - though that maybe DID take a little longer, and Alice alone seems to have NOT jumped immediately into bed with someone else - though she did with Lucien as soon as she found out Lucien was a friend of Max (and how did she find that out? Maybe just when she was stalking Max earlier when he was involved with Lisa...)

Did Lisa deserve to get murdered by Daniel? Absolutely not in any sane world - one not ruled by the mere "whims of the Gods". And yet she merely fell prey to yet ANOTHER lie by Alice - Alice pretending to be Lisa and sleeping with Max is what Daniel saw - and believed. One wonders if Daniel got away with THIS murder?

And Lucien is just dumped - hard. The shallowness of the characters at the very end was a real downer for me - like "oh, so THAT'S what they are like - why should I care? Why make a movie about such?"

There seems to be a lot of unhappiness in modern Europe - as portrayed in their movie making at any rate - especially about "relationships" (not hardly "romance" at all.)

Une Femme Francaise, La Femme Infidele, Le Secret, The Big Picture, Post Coitum Animal Triste are just a few of the movies illustrating this general worldview.