Absolutely loved the movie until *spoilers*...

Yea, I totally agree. I also don't like how that coffee shop Joe is all confused when he comes back, has no idea how he got there, why he's in a suit and all, but then he's just like "OK, it's all good" then walks into the party with Susan. If I couldn't remember days (or weeks) of my life, I wouldn't just shrug it off.

It would've been amazing if it ended as you suggested it should.






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I agree, I think it should have ended with Joe & Bill just walking over the bridge as well. Would have been perfect. It felt like they handed in the finished script and then some Hollywood executive came along and said the ending needed to be more upbeat.

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I don't view it as a Hollywood ending as much as Death has had a slight change of character since he first arrived. At first he just wants a holiday and so he kills someone without thinking about it but as the movie progresses he becomes a little more humane. He is given peanut butter by people who aren't doing it just because they are staff; he sees that he took the Coffee Shop guy from Susan and that it wasn't just a body; he stops the suffering of the lady in the Hospital even though he says thats not his job and numerous other events and I feel that letting Susan be with the Coffee Shop guy was almost a sign of respect back to her after he got to experience the Holiday. It might also be a dig at Drew who was an a** to everyone, especially Death.

What you say in public is what you want people to hear; what you say in private shows who you are.

I didn't mind the "coffee shop" guy returning because Joe made it clear right away that he had taken an "unscheduled life" (who happened to be coffee shop guy) in order to become human and take his 'human' vacation.

So for me the ending is very symmetrical -- Death isn't actually wrapping things up nicely, he's returning them to where they were meant to be. He interrupted the natural order by killing Coffee Shop Joe (and interrupting his immediate connection with Susan). So it works for me that he brings the guy back -- it's fair (the poor guy deserved the life he had left) and at least it leaves us with something for Susan.

As far as the coffee guy not being more confused, I simply assumed Death had taken care of that and brought him back with a certain amount of acceptance of wherever he found himself.

The interesting thing is, upon rewatch, to me Joe is never quite as charming or cool as the guy she met in the coffee shop, so I was happy she ended up with him again. That initial coffee shop scene between the two of them is just terrific and manages to show you that they've just had this big thing happen for each other in just minutes.

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I keep thinking I'm a grownup, but I'm not.

You make an excellent point and I agree with you. But there is one need for that last scene and it is to show that Susan finally gets her self to accept and realize who Joe Black really is. Something she didn't manage when Joe was kissing her goodbye at the party. It was a corny moment but it had meaning and ties to this particular aspect of the story.

I didn't mind the ending at all, it only seemed fair. The real Hollywood ending would have been if Death changed his mind and let Bill live. THAT would have pissed me no end.

I agree that the ending is just not all that right....

Because he was in love with her, he gave her the gift of finding out how things would be with the man she fell in love with at first sight in the coffee shop.

Death takes away. It's his job...but at this moment he gave becuase he was in love.

That I can wrap my brain around and even think it's a powerful ending. There's just those few moments where Joe himself comes back totally confused. They needed to sort it out better. They could have had Joe show up in the coffee shop again, so Joe didn't think anything happened and while she may have there wouldn't have been the awkward meeting of everyone at the party he is already supposed to know.

Or the ruse he was involved in to save her father's empire...how was he to deal with all of this? It took away from the magic of a movie I still love....it just didn't turn out the way it should have. The way it could have.