MovieChat Forums > Smashed (2012) Discussion > Movies today do not know how to do ambig...

Movies today do not know how to do ambiguous endings (SPOILERS)

posted 10 years ago by lcrews
2 replies | jump to latest

First, let me say I really enjoyed Smashed. The writing and directing was great, and the acting of Winstead and Paul was amazing.

SPOILERS BELOW

But my biggest problem is with the ending. I know what they were going for here...the ambiguous ending that 1960s European and 1970s Hollywood films did so well. To use two Jack Nicholson films as an example, Five Easy Pieces has a powerfully ambiguous ending when Bobby takes off with the truck driver and leaves Rayette at the gas station. And in Chinatown, Jake gets no resolution, he's told to "forget it, it's Chinatown." These are truly ambiguous endings that leave the viewer with a lot to think about, sometimes for days, after watching the movie.

Sadly, directors today think if you just cut the story off early, it will have the same powerful effect. Not so. Two of the biggest offenders are this movie, and Steve McQueen's Shame.

Just ending the movie not knowing whether Kate and Charlie will reconcile does not make it ambiguous, or powerful, it's just a movie that ended too early.

Otherwise, this was a fine film, and one of the most honest and true depictions of alcoholism seen on the screen.

[–] Pyro-Maniac500 10 years ago

I completely agree. I also like ambiguous endings when they're done right, but in this film it really just felt like the writer couldn't think of what they wanted kate to say so they just ended the movie. I really liked the movie and these characters too which is why the ending bugged me so much. It felt like reading a book, getting to the end and finding that the last few pages had been ripped out.

[–] foomancrue 8 years ago

I came looking through the chat boards to see if someone commented on the ending. You are the first one I found, so I will take my word dump all over your face. I don't think it's [the ending] meant to be ambiguous in the way some great movies end ambiguously (I'm not familiar with either of the ones you gave as examples, but I'll trust that they have an ending that makes you really think), like maybe Shutter Island or Inception.

In this case [the case of this film] we aren't shown whether or not Kate and Charlie get back together because it's not important to the story being told. There's a possibility that they get back together, but it's going to be a lot of work if it happens at all. So to show them get back together really quickly and painlessly/effortlessly would not only be disingenuous, a happily-ever-after ending wouldn't fit the tone of the film at all. It's about how getting sober doesn't solve your problems, and it's really just the start of a *beep* journey. It's a lot like Clean and Sober with Michael Keaton in that way. (which I hated, and I came looking for an updated version, which I think I found in this movie)

All that being said, I think they could have ended with Kate giving Charlie even the slightest hint of a smile. Or may an eye-roll and a smile. Something that showed she was at least considering falling back in love with him, or whatever. Instead it just lingered on Kate's dumb expressionless face for what seemed like forever and then cut to black, which I think is what prompted you to complain about the ending.

I'm not going to go back and proofread any of what I've just written so I hope it makes sense.