****This post contains Spoilers!****
I enjoyed this movie, but I was rather puzzled by the ending. I was wondering if any fellow viewers might be able to enlighten me.
The crucial moment, it seemed, was when the American viewed the last picture of his grandmother, in which she was seated at a table with a child and "...the other Hetty". The American found it significant that his grandmother was seated with this woman, but I didn't recognize her. Who was she?
I thought that the final photo showed his grandmother, his mum and himself as a baby. I could be wrong though.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Yes, that's right - its him as a child sitting with his mum, and the older lady is his grandmother.
shareI wasn't sure if Christopher was being blackmailed or whether he had a genuine change of heart. I had a slight problem hearing what Marilyn was saying toward the end. Can someone clear it up for me?
shareShe says "Your meeting with Hettie".
I had trouble hearing what she says too - I had to turn the subtitles on to catch it.
OK, remember when the Lindsay Duncan character tells Anderson that his grandmother had had a baby girl, who later became Anderson's mother? The younger woman in the photograph is that little girl grown up--and the child is Anderson himself. The older woman in the photo is his grandmother.
sharei vaguely remember the american guy saying that he'd never met his grandmother. the photograph is proof that he actually DID.
did i get this right or wrong?
You got it right. He had no memories of her, but here was proof laid before his eyes that he had actually met this extraordinary woman, right in the very night club where she'd partied with her unusual friends. What made it so amazing for him was -- remember the restaurant scene where he tells Marilyn how his life has always been planned for him, or by him, down to the last detail? The story of his grandmother, and the picture of himself with her, was evidence that not everything in his life was as laid out as he'd believed it to be. You can see in the followup scenes that he is beginning to give himself psychological permission for his own adventurous nature rather than locking it up.
sharePart of the confusion is that the original, full programme runs 194 minutes; but WGBH/Masterpiece Theatre cut about 20 minutes of material in order to avoid complaints by conservatives to the Federal Communications Commission (over "bad" language, sexual situations, etc.). In Britain, the show was broadcast as *three* 65-ish minute episodes. The American version was *two* 85-ish minute episodes.
So, a lot of material (especially in the third episode) that would have made the ending a *lot* easier to understand was simply taken out when it came across the pond, for fear that it would be too strong for American sensibilities.
They did the same thing with *I, Claudius*. Lots of blood and gore was cut in the American version, especially involving the Caligula episodes. Fortunately, I lived in Metro Detroit where we were able to see the original, uncensored British version on Channel 9 from Windsor, Ontario, in Canada.
Conservative censorship! I'd give a cosmic gold brick to see the real series.
share