For those of you confused... (contains spoilers)

This is the most intelligent explanation of the somewhat ambiguous ending of the movie I have read. The movie was on cable, and I stayed up till after midnight last night to watch it, and must admit I did not "get it" until after I went to bed and thought about it a bit before drifting off to sleep. I came to pretty much the same conclusion. Though I wondered for a bit if Mara had killed Kate herself, but thinking about it, she would not have killed Kate, indeed was clearly broken up at the cemetery when she visited her friend's grave. The death of her dear friend, coupled with the belief that it was caused even indirectly by Sophie, was the most likely motive behind everything Mara did (coupled with a bit of mental instability).

My only question is: what does the future hold? I guess its up to the viewer to imagine.

I completely agree with you except for this part "it doesn't make much sense to be both trying to be Sophie's daughter (the writing on the back of the pictures) AND trying to exact revenge on her for Kate's death."

I believe it's been explained in the movie by a flashback that Mara had at the very end when we understand that Kate is Sophie's daughter, not Mara. In a flashback we see Mara and Kate as little girls that live together in the orphanage. Kate has a photo camera and Mara asks her if she can have it or use it and Kate answers something like "yes, you can have anything that is mine". Mara, being mentally unstable, takes this literally.

At first she just steals family photographs and pretends that Sophie's daughters are her sisters and Sophie's father her grandfather, as she is convinced that she is entitled to have everything of Kate's, even her family. She tests Sophie by telling her story about Kate, how Kate went to Kosovo because someone rejected her and how Kate died, asking her about her life in New York and about she and her family moving to Australia. She knows that they left New York because Sophie was pregnant with unwanted child but just wants to draw reaction and remind Sophie of this and make her uncomfortable. Not knowing Sophie's feelings about giving up Kate and knowing only that she gave her up at birth and than years later rejected her again, she just decides to draw her crazy and present her as a neurotic and unstable person by breaking into her home and stealing her things. Later, Sophie seems unstable even in front of her husband and Mara tries to "steal" him (I believe she tries to take away her husband and family just to show her how is it to be without one, just as Kate was). Eventually, she tries to kill Sophie the same way Kate died but when she fails and realizes that Sophie believes that she is her daughter and is sorry for giving her up and rejecting her later, she just decides to go with the flow and play the role.



I hope this makes sense :))


Oh, other poster asked about future... well, I think that Mara is just too unstable to pretend forever and not to be discovered.

" Mara did not kill Kate. Kate was her best friend."


If you look at the newspaper headline announcing Kate's death, the article says she was burned alive by a burning Molotov Cocktail.


Since Mara was trying to kill Sophie the same way, it would point to the notion that Mara is a psycho who killed Kate and was trying to kill Sophie with a Molotov cocktail.

I think it is safe to say Mara did kill Kate, she is a sociopath the only reason she needs to go after Sophie is whatever her sick twisted mind came up with. Remember they made a pact as children to share everything until death, so on Kate's death what was hers became Mara's.

The rejection document states that it is Mara's biological mother who has rejected her, not Kate's. No one knows how long Mara had that information, was it before she and Kate went to Kosavo? Mara did see Sophie when she went to collect the blue owl, and where does she hide the rejection document and birth certificate, inside the owl, where she knew Sophie would find it, since she knew she was following her and Sophie came to the conclusion Mara suppected she would.

I concur...she also failed miserably in executing her molotov assault for someone who should have done it already.

After Sophie honestly regrets what she has done and begs for forgiveness, Mara remembers how Kate said that she will share verything with her, and that was the process when she stopped her revenge on Sophie in order to share with Kate.
She really loved Kate, and she misses her bitterly (=> tears at her grave) and by becoming her, also in the eyes of her mother and sisters, also Kate becomes somewhat alive again. I'm convinced that she is not only doing it for herself, but for both of them.





Ich bin kein ausgeklügelt Buch, ich bin ein Mensch mit seinem Widerspruch.
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer