Lamont,
I appreciate your response, and think I understand the basis of your position.
First of all we are agreed that the ending is left open to interpretation, which to some extent means we are able to make an interpretation informed by our own views of what we might do, or more to the point how our own points of view might so inform the characters themselves, even given their character differences from our own.
That being the case, it is probably obvious that my own view is informed by personal experience.
The problem with waking up from taking one's lover for granted is how did this occur? Even a complete recognition of one's own personal error in the past will not be enough, depending on what occurred. The problem for James, I think, even if he has the best intentions in seeing where he fell short before, is that he now has reason to fear Anna. And that fear is not merely the general sort of concern that one's spouse might cheat on you, or even coming from the specific fact that she did.
It was the way she did, the passive, almost unthinking, unreflective, and even unemotional way, that made it so troubling. Matter of fact, in a sense. What way can he look at it that can give him even some measure of assurance, and I am not insisting on a guarantee, just a reasonable level of assurance, that she will not do so in the future?
If Bill was Anna's great love of her life, and is now gone, and she expressed an intent to make it up with James (reasonable enough since as you point out her immediate prospects appear to be to either go back with James or be alone), that might be enough. But that she went with some guy who was frankly obnoxious, even generally uncaring, makes it seem like just about anyone who paid her attention would have done.
Perhaps James in fact was not all that consciously aware that Anna was the fickle, passive woman we now understand her to have probably been all along. Maybe he didn't think about it, or even if he had, it had not been a problem for him if she had not yet challenged their marriage by having an extended affair.
But whatever growth in understanding James may now have, why should we see Anna as having changed in any fundamental way?
Seeing her lover through to his end is admirable, to at least some extent, but it is not incompatible with a passive, even unemotional, view of her situation. In short I don't see enough here to show that Anna has "grown" in the sense that she should be viewed as a reasonable prospect to be adequately dependable going forward.
Having said that, I also recognize that James quite simply loves her, and that may be enough for him to overcome the doubts he should have.
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lamont-hard
12 years ago
I like how we are coming to a middle ground on the reconciliation theory. If I might add from another prospective, The lover and the secretary played pawns in getting us to see other objects pulling away at them. She was not open to talking to him throughout the film until they had the conversation where they discovered what the other felt. The key and there are several.
If the film maker wanted us to believe there was no reconciliation it would have been done as in the book or made clear. In the book they did not reconcile he now wants to tell a different version where it is slightly implied they would start again.
The key phrase is her asking him was he free for lunch, she know wants to communicate with him watch the expression on her face, it says a lot. And why do you think the husband is there at her lovers funeral, because he cares for her as a person, he needs to see her, he misses her. Theses elements were not present at the beginning of the film, unlike before, she makes the first move. They were groomed for each other by events unfolding during the movie. The accident, she had to trust he would not let her down, the affair, he had to trust she would return to him. The last piece of the puzzle is they are ready to start over knowing, and implementing there lessons learned, They may not have even be conscience of them. Very often with books to movie transformations the story changes because it had multiple ending already, a good writer will make you see things differently when you are forced to fill in your own blanks.
I never said Bill was the love of he life. I think she stayed the course with him because he was dying, Remember she had already killed someone. As part of her transformation she learned how to communicate from him, she cared for him and did not want to abandon him, different then what you are saying.
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kenny-164
12 years ago
lamont,
I did not mean to say that you had said Bill was the love of her life. Quite the contrary, really, is how he was portrayed. While their joint involvement in dealing with the after effects, as it were, of the death of the man walking on the road borught them together even more, that is not in itself an admirable thing.
The trust part you refer to is real, and you make good points about it. Again I am hardly saying they do not reconcile. James clearly loves Anna, and for him that is probably enough reason to put aside his doubts and go back with her. But I am not James, as much as I find Emily Watson personally attractive.
But we are talking about Anna. I merely think, or should say doubt, that James will find much serenity with her if they do in fact reconcile. The key for me is I do not think the film made the case for concluding that Anna's basic personality and worldview have been transformed enough to make a difference going forward. I fear she will still be passive and fickle, with a healthy dose of a too matter of fact relation with the world, and people, around her.
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lamont-hard
12 years ago
Now this is where we will have different opinions. I feel the film did want to portray her as a woman who grew up in a matter of saying. She let her husband put her down and made her feel insignificant, and that is where he changed.
I feel that passive person is gone and he changed from her telling him who/what he was doing. They both learned from events and telling each other how they felt, letting go of each other though, temporarily to respect other things in life in order to gravitate back together with a stronger look on life and themselves.
On another note her passive and a easy type of woman for guys to score with is not what James was looking to change, as I remembered, that was not much of an issue after she told him how he was affecting her. So that is water under the bridge for him.
In easy understanding terms if he treats his wife as a equal partner they can get on with there new life.
I want to say that I disliked her the first time I saw this movie, but on a second look I saw so much that I did not figure out the first time around. I got into the writers and other things beyond what my thoughts on a cheating wife, and a distant husband should be. I came to like her as she was giving him and her a new beginning. The, are you free for lunch is almost the whole movie on there transformation and i stuck with that more so then the flaky characters personalities. I know some of this does not match your post, i just wanted to point out more of what i saw.
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kenny-164
12 years ago
Well, I could probably benefit from another viewing.
I do feel any spouse who has been cheated on will want some understanding going forward that it will not happen again. Where that understanding comes from will depend, but in this case, I think it would very much involve thinking that Anna is not going to be the same easy mark she was for Bill. Perhaps you are right James might not see it as very important, but I sure as hell would.
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lamont-hard
12 years ago
And I think we shall close on that note, It was fun discussing this movie with you and in doing so I watched it again And found most of what i was saying to be of a less cynical view of her and really paid attention to the message. You are not alone in seeing the movie as you did and some credit needs to go the actors who made us either hate them or understand them to look past there infidelities. I must say I would have second thoughts about her as well, but he played a major part in there previous demise. She was his heart after the funeral, and he was all arms for her and she knew it.
I feel Anna is done messing around, she found all that she needed from both men. she was even done with Bill at least from a lusty in love with him before she went back to him. That was the changed Anna. He (James) let her become who she developed to be. All he (James) had to do was be there after her business with Bill was over. Another hidden message I found. Well, until the next movie take care, It was fun.
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kenny-164
12 years ago
Fair enough, Lamont. I would not mind seeing the film again to sort of test your view of it. After all I did in any event enjoy the film overall.
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