MovieChat Forums > Elvis and Anabelle Discussion > 2 thoughts//questions.. . spoilers.

2 thoughts//questions.. . spoilers.

posted 14 years ago by samma_grace
12 replies | jump to latest

first of all. after annabelle decides that she wants to stay with elvis and the cops start looking for her. why does she go to such lengths to hide? she did nothing wrong and wasnt a fugitive so she couldve just told the cops that she was there by her own free will. the mom wouldve thrown a fit, sure.. but i think dealing with the mom wouldve been better than what happened. so. just wondering why she acted like a fugitive.

and then. did anyone else catch a vibe that were both dead at the end? i know it shows them both stopping right before their suicides. but i couldnt help but feel that in the field at the end they were going to reveal that they had both died and that was them in the afterlife. i think it was just the way they set it up. annabelle wearing his moms dress.. [which i thought she left behind when they stole the clothes] and just the way she said 'what are you doing?' and he replied 'waiting for you.' i dont remember what other movie im thinking of that this reminds of.. maybe An American Crime with Ellen Page..

but did anyone else think that they might be dead? maybe i just kept waiting for them to kick me in the face when i was all happy. lol.

overall i LOVED this movie.. i tivod it knowing nothing about except what the description said... i was expecting a cheesy low budget comedy type movie.. maybe like Drop Dead Gorgeous.. really happy it wasnt. :)

.WWSD.whatwouldstablerdo

[–] Ruby-Ella 14 years ago

To answer the first question (kind of). Did they ever say how old Elvis & Annabelle were? It mentioned they went to the same high school. I don't know if they were out for good or just for the summer. But if it was just the summer, I'd guess they'd be around 16 or 17. And in that case I'm pretty sure the cops would have to return her to her mother with Annabelle being a minor and everything.

On the second one, I never thought that. IMO, she comes to see him and searches the house first for him and for whatever reason decides to put on his mother's dress. When she realizes he's not in the house, she decides to search the sunflower field.

There's something vibrating in your pocket, and I really hope it's your phone.[GG}

[–] lindsey-ann 14 years ago

I'm thinking they were 18 because that talked about high school as though it were over. I got the feeling that it was the summer right after they finished high school because they talked about high school in past tense like when Elvis was like "you were a cheerleader" or when the mom said "yall went to the same high school"/.

[–] i_am_kierstin 13 years ago

I think the characters are supposed to be more college-aged, just judging by their conversations.

Second, the dress isn't really the giveaway that they're dead--it's the sunflowers. Sunflowers take 3 months to grow. This movie spans maybe two weeks from beginning to end.

kierstin-happyphotos.blogspot.com

[–] jchristofaro 14 years ago

Saw it for the first time last night. I'm totally surprised how much I liked this movie. It was sensitive, well acted and touching. I agree about the "death" vibe at the end. But I believe that the ending was meant to have a miraculous dreamy feel to it. Remember how she was revived from death by his kiss? I expected that ending and was pleased they didn't "die". Then it really would have had a corny feel to it. Overall, easily a favorite of mine.

[–] lostinvast 14 years ago

I'm guessing that perhaps Annabelle kept running because she simply did not want to be found. Didn't want to go back to her mother. Since she's a minor, being found would have meant she'd be forced to go back.

As for the ending, you know what, I really did fell that way too! Interesting to see others interpreted it that was as well. Not quite sure what to think, but I am definitely satisfied with a happy ending over a tragic one :) Who knows, maybe they had two endings for the movie and went with the happy one. We'll see when the DVD is released.

Team Eric.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kay_cee_d 14 years ago

I thin it would've been too sad if they were dead. I think a big part of the movie is that these 2 kids weren't really living their lives. That the needed a push to go out and be happy and move on and do things. That finding each other and having this miracle happen is the thing that pushes them from being so stuck. If they ended up dying I think it would've been a very different message, less happy because despite being together in the afterlife they never got the chance to have full lives on earth. You know?

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[–] dancintoes01 13 years ago

Maybe they are dead, who knows.. living in "heaven" together, or what would be their heaven.. didnt think of it until just now after reading (but actually just finished the movie about 2 seconds ago and had to read others opinions as fast as i could, as i loved the movie!)

But I also kind of figured the sunflowers growing so fast was a "miracle" as she stated when she wanted to get the seeds in the first place. He realized this was a miraculous sign that her love "blossomed" over this time and that they really do belong together.. hence him struggling to get out of the rope.. etc

Even if they were dead in the end, it seems to me that their "souls" reunited in the afterlife, so I don't see how that is a sad ending.. to be forever together.. it kind of it better if they both died, I know, sounds morbid.. but their eternity didnt look so bad.

[–] CathyCPA09 12 years ago

Another miraculous thing was the hard rain that came down in the middle of the summer in Texas where it is usually a drought for three months or more. That might have been part of the reason the sunflowers were able to grow. Charlie and Elvis were both skeptical about anything growing in the summer in Texas but Annabell planted the sunflowers anyway and they miraculously grew.

[–] keep-flying 12 years ago

Because she wanted to be gone. Being missing/lost to anyone else seemed more fulfilling to her desires than just moving somewhere else. She didn't want to deal with her family and the definite drama that would go on and on for at least weeks. If she let them know where she was, she wouldn't be able to stay there either. It'd be too much trouble for Elvis and his father, they don't deserve that. Her parents would really drag her back or make her feel the entire definition of bad if she didn't listen.

Personally I didn't catch a vibe that they were dead. I have to admit I'm open to it because when you look at it like that, it does seem possible in a sense. But I saw them more like happy. I thought they actually changed their minds, that THEY changed each others minds about wanting to live or not. That they saved each other, and if they were really dead, I think Elvis' father would be in their heaven and even if not that then I don't think they would be able to share the same moment in death. That moment was a result of her seeing the news report and him painting it, etc. Those reporters couldn't be in their heaven. It's been months since I saw the movie so I could point out some more things if I saw it right now. It just doesn't add up for me if they had died. That's why I look at it the casual way.

You're right, this movie is absolutely amazing. It was also one of those movies for me that I didn't expect to be good, I just watched it because it was there. But then it completely enchanted me.

EDIT: I don't remember because it's been too long ago since I've seen it but maybe it's possible they just skipped weeks in between scenes in order for the flowers to grow enough, or maybe even during her stay after they planted it, or his jailtime or even their vacation seemed to take a while too. I do remember him having his father on the table, I'm sure he would have burried him like a good son, usually a burial takes a week already. Add it all up, you do get to 3 months. Also, Elvis didn't choose to die anymore, he accidentally nearly died because he turned around. The window smacking open was something that happened before he supposedly would have killed himself. Which also adds to my belief that they didn't die.

[–] tugboatphil 12 years ago

I thought she was hiding out because the press mob was still at her house, plus she had just BEEN DEAD! I'd imagine that would have an effect on someone and could cause them to want to be away from everything in their past life, especially when that life included an overbearing mom and a molesting stepdad.

I'm in the minority here about the end scene. I didn't get the impression that both had done themselves in. When he was walking out of the house, the press mob in his driveway responded. She stopped short of pushing the TV set, so I think she was still alive too. I want to believe they both were anyway.

I was very impressed with this film. I had no expectations, as I'd never heard of it. If Direct TV hadn't been running a free HBO weekend I'd have not seen it yet. Very good performances all around. and especially a good job by Joe Mantegna, one of my favorite actors.

For the record, I'm a middle aged man, probably not the target audience of the producers, but I've been a fan of a great story since watching Children's Film Festival every week, on CBS when I was a kid.

[–] cetaylor3 11 years ago

I share your read on the movie. Just saw it on the dvd and on a 'bonus' the director even used the phrase 'magic realism' to express some of what he intended to bring to the film (The director grew up frequenting a funeral home run by friends of his family's and he got the idea, when he read of cases of people coming back to life, to put some magic realism to such a case.)

I didn't think they died - Anabelle's pov prevailed (presumably the director's as well) that there are miracles in life. But there is counterevidence, imo, to the notion they carried out suicides ... After Charlie dies, there are extended 'montage'-like scenes alternating back and forth showing Elvis and Anabelle respectively in somber isolated reflective gazes, he wandering to the fridge in a robe, etc., she on her bed or in it ... I think we are intended to see this as the passing of time - of unknown length - before each of them reaches the despair that prompts the suicidal plan ... But in any event, adding some magical realism seems enough to account for enough time passing to have sunflowers bloom (although they do seem to bloom in a very uniformly magical way) ...

What emerged in this thread that i do believe was a problem but not a dealbreaker one, just what i'd see as a "goof" concerned the mother's dress she was wearing when they stole the clothes ... I'm pretty sure they left the store emptyhanded, no place for either of them to be carrying the dress with them - which is something neither of them would have -- in character -- abided. There were other such goofs but on balance none were dealbreakers for my suspension of disbelief ... I remained able to engage in the characters and root for the outcome that was, admittedly, rather predictable all along ...