MovieChat Forums > The Motel (2005) Discussion > Can someone please explain to me the end...

Can someone please explain to me the ending???


i didnt really understand why the movie ended the way it did. he finally pays then leaves, then Ernest walks in and sees his mother who read is writing, they both cry..... credits roll. Can someone explain to me what was the point of that drunk guys character at all in this movie!? thanks

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what was written in the journal was meant to be somewhat trivial but what you do know from when the camera pans over the pages is that he wrote about the girl from the chinese restaurant. his mother, after reading this comes to realize that her son is going through puberty/entering manhood. my interpretation is that she forgot to appritiate the passing of time, and doesn't want to raise her son thinking she's a (quote) "ugly mean old woman" anymore.

ernest was just crying because he's confused. in such a critcal era where the right influence is nowhere to be found.

the point of the drunk character was to throw people off, with everyone's hopes in him steering ernest in the right direction. his character went on to show that he isn't the ideal role-model after all, which is most likely due to he himself having a skewed childhood also. near the end of the film he references to a conversation earlier in the movie: "I feel like I'm twelve all over again." shortly after being beaten with a baseball bat.

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Hmm, I think it's more open to interpretation...

I chose to think that the mother and son came to an understanding of, or some new respect for, each other in that moment (Ernest because he had just had to bash up his friend, and newly respected his mother's tough and lonely ways, and Ahma because she read her son's precocious account of his own life, as a young adult).

I thought Ernest's tears exquisitely portrayed both child and adult sorrow -- just right for the character's age at that moment, too.

Also, the writer/director said that Sam (the drunk guy) is supposed to embody the fact that someone of that age might have absolutely nothing of value to teach a thirteen year old, who nonetheless looks up to them. As for a bad childhood, the character says that he'd wanted to stay twelve years old forever -- which doesn't sound like suffering to me.

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i think that Sam was kind of a father character to Ernest because Sam seemed kind of fixated on the fact that Ernest's father left. Sam played ball with him, something his father should have done. Sam left when he felt that Ernest had grown up enough.

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*** This obviously contains spoilers. How can you respond to "explain the ending" without spoilers? ***

If you watch the special features of the DVD, it seems that the director and the producer actually thought the film was something of a comedy. It sure didn't come across that way to me.

I though the reason Ernest cries at the end is that another grown up has failed him totally (the first being his Dad). Ernest completely bought into the idea that Sam was going to teach him how to get laid by the hottie (Christine), and when the plan reached its natural conclusion (failure), he threw Sam out. The Mom I assume is crying because of some great insight she got from reading Ernest's story, but I didn't buy that for a minute.

I enjoyed the movie for the pure "take me to another world" weirdness, but didn't find it particularly deep, don't remember laughing at all, and was a little annoyed that they rolled the credits before any real resolution was reached.

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We were laughing quite a bit during this one. There are quite a few funny little over the top moments, if one is an active viewer and has the ability to appreciate that type of humor.

Probably both cry because of having learned something that didn't previously realize and as a sort of release of the tension built up from their previous argument, or such was the intention anyway. I think the film makers were a little lazy here and could have added a bit more.

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