Unresolved endings kind of piss me off. You?

@boomerang,

I agree -you invested all this time reading a book or watching a movie and then it doesn't get wrapped up - there should be a warning on the label.

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@sozobe,

True - there is definately a difference - in some very rare cases, it actually seems right to be unresolved. But I think this is the exception to the rule - very few seem to be able to do it right.

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

Joe Nation wrote:
Yeah. I've watched the ending of Castaway six or seven times and I know the writer(s) wanted us to feel like -okay, now his life can go on. - but, there is something missing somehow. There he is. The island he is on is now the whole world intersected by two Texas Farm Roads. AND? He is still a castaway.

But... that's the point. She was his world. The island was just a metaphor, the package was just a metaphor for his work.

They could have at least let him have Wilson. Laughing

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@edgarblythe,

But he did in the end - he drives away with a new Wilson ball.

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@DrewDad,

I think you're right, but to spend all that time and effort to get back to her and then find that there is no one there, the movie could have gone on about another hour or two couldn't it?

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@Linkat,

What? Where? Did I miss that?

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Oh, and by the way, here's a title for all of you:

SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW
Not the movie (haven't seen it), the book. I pissed off three people because I asked them to read it just to tell me if I was wrong about the ending.

Joe(they were rightly pissed)Nation

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Sometimes the open endings are wrong (I hated Memento, too), and sometimes they are so right. At least in one case : Henry Miller's Sexus, for example. He jumps around throughout the book from one time to another...but at least twice he hints that "This was the last time I have seen Mona".... but the book ends with a weird and funny dream while they are quite happily together. You'll never know what happened and the dream makes no sense, but I never laughed so hard as during those last two pages. Brilliant!

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@dagmaraka,

Sexus is the first part of a trilogy. Plexus and Nexus continue this work, except he leaves off writing somewhere in the middle of Nexus, calling it his unfinished masterpiece.

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@edgarblythe,

yes...but remember the dream?

i thought it was one of the best book endings ever....whatever comes in the next volume.it was just perfect.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

My first real experience with unresolved endings was reading "Felix Krull: Confidence Man". It totally pissed me off.

Besides that I really liked and like Felix Krull - it's called (in the original German title) ... . The memoirs. First part. (Mann never wrote the second besides making some notes how it should go on.)

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

My first real experience with unresolved endings was reading "Felix Krull: Confidence Man". It totally pissed me off.

Lately I've been coming across more and it still pisses me off.

Like this book "In the Woods" by Tana French. It sets up two mysteries and the best one is never resolved.

Then the other day there was this little film:

[youtube[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcMCyqaTFaI&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

Don't even get me started on "Momento".

I think I have a pretty good imagination. I can dream up stuff. I don't need all the ends tied up neatly at the end of reading/watching something but when I just can't figure it out it drives me nuts.

I like both the books, the movie and the mini-film listed but somehow they still piss me off.

What do you think about unresolved endings?

Which ones have left you scratching your head?

I agree with u, Boomer.
I think that u r right.

However, candor moves me to admit
that I kinda liked the ending of The Sopranos
in that, effectively, we were invited to choose
our own interpretation of whether the next few seconds
were uneventful, or whether there was a massacre.

David

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

I think unresolved endings fall into two basic categories: purposely unresolved and cop-out.

Some purposely unresolved ones don't bother me if done right -- I agree with Chai's mention of clues, something that sets you to thinking approximately what the author wants you to think. Some stories are better served with some ambiguity at the end -- I can't think of an example but I know I've read books that seemed to be going towards a tidy ending that was out of character for the book and I was actually relieved when things swerved off course at the very end. It was unresolved, but still satisfying.

I loved "A Series of Unfortunate Events" but the ending was annoying. It felt like a cop-out to me. I don't think the author had the whole story mapped out when he started -- I think he just kinda plunged in and wrote the first book, and then made up the rest as he went along. That can be OK, but he set up too many expectations and didn't tie up enough loose ends. Then he covered up with something about "maturity" and "life is messy." Well, yeah, but it just didn't work with what he'd already written, and wasn't satisfying. The end made me very grumpy. (But only because what came before it was so good, so I still recommend the series overall.)

OFF TOPIC:
Sozobe:
Did u once post a very interesting article
concerning human appreciation
of happiness over a long period of time ?

(This was way back around the time of the beginning of this
current version of A2K, after we lost the older version.)

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

This one?

http://able2know.org/topic/11811-1

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

This one?

http://able2know.org/topic/11811-1

Yes! Thank u, Sozobe.
May the beauty of your day be exceeded only by your joy

David

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@Joe Nation,

Yes! Towards the very end, Tom Hanks drives up to deliver his one package he never opened (also a possible hint he would hook up with this girl). He is driving away and you see a wilson ball unopened in the car next to him.

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With "Memento," it was not the end of the movie but the beginning.

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How about beginnings that give away too much? There was a Bruce Willis film, in which it is said, "Some people don't know they are dead." It was so obvious who was the dead guy I found it hard to keep watching and in fact did not make it to the ending.

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@edgarblythe,

That would be "The Sixth Sense" which I watched that on TV and the entire film was making me rather sleepy so I missed that line, so the twist ending was the best half-hour part of the film. Bruce Willis' moribund performance didn't help but I'll never watch it again 'cause I know the gimmick. It was aped not much longer after it's success with "The Others" starring Nicole Kidman, stirring together "Sixth Sense" with "The Turn of the Screw." Go back and watch the Deborah Kerr version of Henry James "The Turn of the Screw," film title "The Innocents" if you want to see a great movie.

Then there are endings that are obvious religious political ploys, notably, although the debate does on about the "The Passion of the Crist" anti-Semitism (even now more proof has surfaced that Pontius Pilate could wash his hands for weeks and not be exonerated from the real blame), the ending depicts Jesus as a warrior in the sky with the obviously implication that all other non-Christian governments and their religions should beware.

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@Lightwizard,

I missed it as well - I kinda can't just sit and watch a movie - I missed the Wilson name on the volleyball when Tom Hanks first opened the package. Toward the end of the movie, when Tom drove away with a new volleyball and it was in the package I saw the brand name Wilson on it. And light dawned - thats why he called it Wilson - hubby just looked at me as if I had a blonde moment.

1 Reply

Unresolved endings kind of piss me off. You?

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