I think the ending of "Arven" was something like this.
He knew he could get here, and since she started crying when she saw the vacant seat, she still loved him.
He became cynical, and just wanted to know that he always could get her back, tough he wanted the business more than he wanted her.
It's a quite open ending, but as I see it he ends up just like his father. He just want to see them before he commits suicide just like his father did.
I have just seen the movie and I have to think a bit more about it, but this is my immediate guess of the ending...
you've obviously didn't get the point of the movie at all...
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My opinion on the matter is that _he_ was not cut out to be her husband. I believe that he truly loved Maria, but he was not ready to sacrifice the job at the steel plant.
He could have quit the job - now that the plant was running all right - but he was locked in this weird role as the CEO and in the process forgot about to be human. After all, why was Maria not cut out to be his wife ? She wanted to do everything for him but Christoffer became cynical and cold hearted - which is also evidently shown when he layed off Axel who had been in the company for 34 years.
My 2 euro cents.
The movie is about him coming to terms with who he is. The ending is actually sort of a happy ending because they have both accepted their new way of life. She realized that she was not cut out to merely being the wife of the CEO, and she finds a happier way of life. He realizes that he is more ambitious than he thought and that the family company is more important to him than his wife. After this realization, they are both happier.
Of course you could argue that it's sad that they are incapable of being happy together, but I guess that is one of the points of the movie. That there is a limit to how much you can compromise with your identity and still be happy.
"Diane, never drink coffee that has been anywhere near a fish"
Well, I could agree with saying that they both accept their new way lifes.
But that's after Christopher chose that for both of them. Instead she really wanted him back. It does not really look like a happy ending, or a happier way for them. None of them looks really happier in the end.
The main and only decision was up to Christofer: to go or not to go, that is, to save his life with a (still) loved woman, or to get back to the family business. He didn't go, probably in a moment of weakness, not because of the cynism. It's the kind of decision, you will always remember in your life with regrets or at least with nostalgia. I cannot think of him choosing this way because of ambitions, or cynism -- his character really wasn't like this.
For me it looks really sad and realistic. I was so touched by this movie that I walked out the theater almost with tears in my eyes and had to sit for 5 minutes to calm down.
I think this film was about her mother strength.
She said once: you're as strong as me. But in mom's eye strongness meant managing the firm successfully, not the marriage.
Mother was the one who made him (and his father) to do what she wants (even if it ruined the family), nothing else mathers but the firm. Christoffer did everything what mom told him. He never made own decisions, just doing what mom says (as his father I think). This mom-relation was too strong, he couldnt follow his own instincts in managing nor in family: so he fired his old friend, and ruined his marriage.
I somewhat agree with that. I thought, so much, that she'd be killed or pushed into the pool at that moment, I was disappointed when he didn't. I find it hard to believe that he could integrate such a truth (if it was) from his mother, at that moment of tenderness and hurt, since she said it in such ugly fashion. I would expect an angry reaction from him first. When he didn't do anything immediately I then expected him to unravel his company life and return to normal. Which I guess he did, somewhat, hiring his brother-in-law again.
On the other hand, he's shown he's smart, knowing that Nils would have to go and accepting a few other hard choices; ruled by his head and not by his heart. So maybe he knew it already and could get into that frame of mind instead of that of his loss. I /still/ would have expected reaction though.
His actions are cynical yes, but I don't he is a cynical person. He is self destructive.
shareI think he didn't show up because he didn't want to what happened to him to happen to his own son in the future. His wife and son seemed so happy as he watched them from afar, I don't think he wanted to ruin that and he knew showing up at the theater and entering their lives again would not be the best for them.
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"Arven - the heritage" contained of a sucessful company, wealth moneywise, a distrastrous marriage, cynicism and a suicide. Christofer takes it all on, as I see the movie.
I think the movie is about choice. We inherit a set of prerequisite and our life becomes what we make of it. I don't think C could have chosen both to live his own life AND take on the family company. He could have left it up to his brother in law (which I think he wanted to deep down in the beginning), with the reslut of a firm that went bankrupt, but to a lesser cost of his personal own. He had a life in Stockholm, with which he was happy.
Maria does just what she has to do to survive it all.
Chrisotffer committed suicide in the end, I am certain.
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Actually, I think this is what happened in the beginning of the movie.
The person he was meeting with cancelled because he was sick. So, the bellman asked if Christoffer wanted to get on the (earlier) 6:45pm flight. He says yes but later, while in his hotel room, he changes his mind and decides to leave tomorrow, which is why he tells his secretary to tell his wife that he was "staying another night". If he's staying another night, then his original intent really was to leave the same day that the meeting takes place--the day the movie starts.
All of this is important because it emphasizes the fact that he intended to make contact with Maria that night and hoped to at least have dinner with her.
Lastly, I agree that he didn't want to make his son go through the same "inheritance" that he went through.
He didn't change his mind. The flight would have already been booked by the bellman, despite whatever he told his secretary...
shareAt first I thought that he was just being smart enough to know that getting back together wouldn't work. That they'd just end up re-fighting all the same fights, that he wasn't the best match for her temperament / lifestyle anymore, given how dedicated he was to the company. That he made a hard, smart choice.
Then I thought back, she had been kind of standoffish. Well, she genuinely looked glad to see him at the beginning, but got formal in the middle and left early, no doubt just not wanting to get carried away so suddenly, give herself some space. But, perhaps he thought that /she/ had moved on, or, while still having feelings, had decided it wasn't going to work and was just being formally nice. /We/ see how excited she is after meeting him, but that surprises us after her formality. But he hasn't seen that. He maybe thinks going to see her and talk with her would just being going through some motions, which would be leaden and even painful if there's no hope in them of anything more. So he decides not to go through with it, just awkwardness or pain for both of them. And it just takes him a while to come to consciously let it go. Or perhaps he added this thought to the first one.
But probably only the first interpretation was the filmmaker's intention, because we see him being steely, or struggling between steeliness and humanness all through the movie. He'd been on a humanity kick most recently, hiring back his brother-in-law, but it just lets us know that this final battle is a real battle. I think the film is more meaningful under that interpretation; having a happy ending go sour because of an accidental personal misreading just doesn't make sense.
Christoffer sacrificed his personal life for the better good of the workers who were loyal to his family and company. Maria wanted to live the easier life of partying and of having less responsibilities. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but as his mother said, Maria is a weak person.
At the end of the movie, Maria realizes that she has made a mistake in leaving Christoffer. Christoffer in contrast realizes that Maria is who she is, an actress who enjoys spontaneity and that he is better off with his current wife. If Christoffer was a bad person, I'm sure he could have sued her in a divorce and get custody of his son. The fact that he lets her live with their son shows that he is at heart a good man.
I think one of the sadder moments of the movie happens when Annika says that they could have had a happy life. Christoffer says he is happy, but we and Annika know that is a lie.
Finally, several call Christoffer cold, but he is the one with the most compassion for the workers who gave him and his family their wealth, house, and prestige.