MovieChat Forums > Dreaming of Joseph Lees (1999) Discussion > So How Do You Think It Ends?

So How Do You Think It Ends?

posted 19 years ago by lpspurlock
11 replies | jump to latest

I guess I should have worded the subject different but at the end, it seems like we are left hanging... I suppose the ending is up to the person or how they see it. I was just wondering how everyone thinks the story goes.. if she leaves w/ Joseph.. or if that's a fond goodbye to what they had shared and she decides to stay w/ her boyfriend. Just interested to see what other ppl think... and I'm still deciding myself if she stays or goes.

[–] pensive_bum 19 years ago

I don't think it was meant to bring closure. Kind of the old Lady or Tiger ending.. I'd like to think she went back to Harry in the hopes that he would recover. However, he dies due to mental illness and then she is free to go back to Joseph. haha quite absurd, but it wraps it in a neat happy ending.

[–] opdiva 19 years ago

The romantic that I am, I think that she ends up going off with him.

[–] Eme67 19 years ago

I believe that you aren't given the ending because Eva will agonize over which is the correct decision forever. It's a question without answer. But they do give you this beautiful moment where the anguish and love shows itself and finds a momentary union, then time passes on, across the fields, and on, and on....

That's my humble opinion anyway. :)

[–] firming 18 years ago

I would really like to think that she ran off with Joseph after that hug, but to me, it was a "goodbye" hug. The way that they were both holding onto each other so tightly makes me think that, and then she went back into the house to nursemaid her psycho boyfriend. I feel that if they'd gotten together, at least in that moment, then the hug would not have been so tight and final. It was as if they knew that would be their last time together. But that is the way it seemed to me.

[–] yajue_1 12 years ago

it was the way it seemed to me too

[–] yajue_1 12 years ago

I change my mind on account of the smile of her sister.I think Eva will go with Joseph Lees in the end.

[–] HarlowMGM 11 years ago

I change my mind on account of the smile of her sister.I think Eva will go with Joseph Lees in the end.

That's what I commented on in my review to the film I put up on IMDb several years ago, admittedly it is grasping at straws but it is something to hope on.

I think the problem was the writer felt at a loss how to end this story. To let Eva go off with Joseph and they might be accused of a Hollywood ending. To make it clear she stayed with Harry would seem a backward anti-feminist ending where women have no choice. But the vague ending chosen is plainly a cheat and unsatisfying and just plain wrong. Unlike other stories where a plot has room for a ambiguous ending or a not yet conclusive resolution, Eva is at a cross-roads on the last reel. She does have to make a decision, to leave or to stay, it is not a "I'll think about that tomorrow, tomorrow is another day" possibility. And so the audience is cheated out of knowing what that decision was.

[–] island_paradise44 12 years ago

I think she ran off with Joseph

[–] maggiemaysss 9 years ago

I hope she ran off with Joseph, Harry was weak, selfish, crazy and didn't love her at all. He only loved himself.

[–] meadowlark54 9 years ago

I think Eva will eventually go back to Joseph. That's what I would do. Staying with Harry would mean a very unhappy life for her, and I don't think she deserves that.

[–] amani-preston 9 years ago

Why did Eva feel so obligated to be with that whiny twit, Harry (did I miss something)? I don't understand.