i am pretty sad that the character of ken really did not evolved in the movie. i expected that that crazy bitch mary would end up with this bloke but nothig happenes, ken disappeared for the rest of the movie and mary ends broken and in tears - what an happyend. i did not get it - she just had an eye for that boy named joe, what the heck? and what happened with that depressed woman from the start? better script writting would help, the rest is ok.
shareAnd by better script writing do you mean a polished, artifically happy ending as opposed to the reality of the fact that these people, i.e. Ken and Mary, may just end up unhappy in life?
In the motions and the things that you say...it all will fall, fall right into place.
It's odd that Mary preferred the morose Ronnie to Ken. Both being dependent on alcohol, I thought maybe they'd hook up. But Mary, despite talking over any potential he may have with Gerri, was very reluctant about letting anything happen between her and Ken.
Perhaps at the time Mary was more optimistic, thinking she could do better.
It seemed obvious to me that Ken pretty much repelled her (she never wanted to be near him and pretty much freaked when he got in the front seat of her car).
shareKen was such a sad puppy and Mary thought of herself as a hot babe, she wanted a stud. Like the guy she was eying at the beginning of the film at the pub. Although I wouldn't have classified the son as a stud but by then Mary was clutching at straws.
SkiesAreBlue
My happy ending would have been that Mary befriend (not romantic) Ken. Go up and help fix his flat and then in turn he could come down and fix her garden. Meanwhile make sure Ken sees GP and starts to look after his health and he and Mary stop smoking and excessive drinking and maybe a good friendship will flourish and lo and behold, Mary will be welcombed back into the Hepple household. Ken and Mary might find other good friends too and then find happiness. Ronnie I think will be a dead loss as we all know that his poor wife worked very hard and he was on the doll and couldn't do a thing for himself. The look on his face when Tom was packing a few clothes for him, dawned on him that he just couldn't take care of himself. "What am I going to do?" he said. Tom thought it was about Carl. But he was talking about himself.
BlueSkies
Ken was too desperate, at that point, for basically ANY female to be near.
shareYes, I agree, with sugarteacream, Ken was in as bad a shape as Mary. It would take a sainted person to hook up with either one of them, they were so needy. And if you ask me (and I'm an old lady with lots of life experience) they were well past an age when they were going to change their ways, so it most likely would be just frustration and waste of energy for anyone to take on the project of helping them improve their lives. Gerry was right, that Mary needed professional, unobjective help if she was going to improve her life in any way.
shareI bet you a pound to a penny that Ken will be 6 feet under by the next year.
BlueSkies
That isn't too far off the mark. Ken tells Tom and Gerri (the names always make me smile) how he'll hate going back home as there's nothing in left in for him in Hull. When he gets upset in the couple's garden he tells them that a tree he spotted from the train reminded him of his close friend 's funeral (I wonder what he died of?). The shot of Ken's train speeding away from London fades as we get a very brief glimpse of the top of a bare tree. Will there be another year for sad Ken?
shareMary burned her bridges with Ken at the car scene. It is unlikely that they will meet again. Ken became too ashamed to try to meet her again.
I think the person in charge was Joe. He played with her feelings at the tree's house and give her hopes of a romanthic encounter, but was laughting at her. Thinking she has such sweet trophy at hand, she rejected Ken.
At the end of the film is obvious that she could accept Ronnie (she could accept anybody just to have someone to talk), but it's too late.
Mary is drawn to Ronnie partly because of his passivity (that's all we know of him: grieving, depressed, closed- in) which is the opposite of Ken's needy over-enthusiasm, his age - we already know Mary had a previous but failed relationship with an older married man, but most of all because he's a member of Tom & Gerri's family. She holds a torch for Joe because he's much younger and this flatters her ego, Joe's (manipulative) charm, an unspecified shared experience she often alludes to and importantly, he is Tom & Gerri's son. Another porthole into the family. Ken has many matching characteristics to Mary, but he is too accurate a mirror image and therefore won't be able to match up to her fantasy and 'save' her.
share