Again, you are missing a full 30 to 45 minutes. It would take about as much time for you to watch it again or to read the play as it would for someone to give you a detailed explanation of what happened.
But since I'm feeling generous, here is an summary of what happens:
Meg decides she is going to run off with Lord Darlington, she leaves a note for her husband and slips out the door.
Mrs Erlyne comes up to see how Meg is doing, finds the note, reads it, and says fate couldn't possibly let her daughter write the exact same things that she (Mrs E) wrote to Meg's father before she left him. She locks the door and pretends to Robert that Meg has a headache and can't see him. When Robert leaves, Mrs E goes to find Meg. She meets Tuppy and asks him to keep Robert occupied all night and take him to the club, wherever, but away from the house.
Meg is at Lord Darlington's boat, indecisive and ready to go back home to her husband, when Mrs E walks in. She tries to convince Meg to go back home, but because it's Mrs E, Meg refuses to listen. As they are talking, all the men, Tuppy, Lord Darlington, Robert, and Cecil and Dumby come in. The two women hide, and Mrs E tells Meg that when she has a chance, slip out the door. The men are talking, Lord Darlington talking about the best and purest woman he knows (Meg); Cecil and Dumby see a woman's fan on the table, which Meg accidentally left there. They point it out to Robert, saying that Darlington's woman can't be so good after all; Robert starts to go crazy, wanting to search the place and find Meg. Mrs E then steps out her hiding place and says that she left that fan there, she had picked it up by mistake at the party. Meg slips out the door, Tuppy is devastated, everyone assumes Mrs E has just proved her reputation as a whore is justified.
Next day, Meg and Robert make up. Mrs E comes to visit, Robert asks her not to tell Meg she's her mother, Mrs E says it's her secret and she will if she wants. Meg is eager to be nice to Mrs E, Mrs E asks for a photo of Meg and if she could also have her fan. Meg gives her both. Mrs E leaves, not having told Meg that she is her mother. She gets on a plane, despondent that she has lost her chance with Tuppy...only to find Tuppy on the plane with her, Meg having made up a story to him that somehow explained Mrs E's presence in Lord Darlington's boat. And that's the end.
No one spoke,
The host, the guest,
The white chrysanthemums.
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rutland274
17 years ago
You have explained what happened in the last scenes of the film extraordinarily well!! I must say that I was blown away by the excellence of this film. I missed the first part of the story, but when I realized that Scarlett Johansson and Helen Hunt were two of the actors, I was compelled to stay with it. I must say that I enjoyed the story very much without realizing that this was about "Lady Windemere's Fan" until I heard the name mentioned in reference to Scarlett. I then had a "wait a minute.. moment". LOL I salute Helen Hunt for permitting herself to appear as an "older" person. My thought was that she had aged considerabley since I had last seen her. Then as the story progressed, I realized that it was important to the story. This is a really four star production!
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jojyjohn007
10 years ago
It's been quite sometime since I logged into this site. But your summary left me with no other choice.
You have done a very good job of explaining the ending. It's probably a coincidence that I missed the ending of this movie as well. But your summary has done a good job of filling in for me.
A thumbs up and a high 5 for you.
They call me Eraserhead.
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artistathome
9 years ago
It isn't shown but in the last 5 mins of the film, Meg takes her fan and goes to Lord Augustus and reveals what really happened.
She likes Mrs. Erlynne and knows that Mrs. E's chance for happiness is gone because she protected Meg.
At some point after Meg and Mrs. Erlynne talk at the villa, she goes to see Augustus. It isn't clear when it happens and actually there doesn't seem to be much time for that. But that is what happens.
Lord Augustus decides he does want to marry Mrs. Erlynne and goes to the plane to wait for her to board. Then reveals himself to her. Both of them have flaws and he is wise enough to look past that.
So everyone wins.
One poster said Meg made up a story to protect Mrs. E. I don't believe that is how it happened. I think Meg trusted Lord A enough to tell him what really happened and that Mrs. E was only there to get Meg to leave.
had Meg just "made up something" he wouldn't have believed it anyway. The truth was better. and it makes the story better.
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