Movie Endings...satisfying or disappointing?

[shmeep]

I was thinking of starting this thread before Bebe started hers about worst movies and I still think it's different enough to warrant its own place.

I'm thinking about this today because I caught The Departed over the weekend and...hmm...I wasn't sure what to think when it ended. I spent the entire movie completely engrossed by the story. The writing was brilliant, the cast was amazing, the story was full of twists and turns and I just knew there would be some sort of payoff at the end that would leave me satisfied but...there wasn't. I won't give anything away, but there was too much built up within the story for it to have ended as it did. It almost seemed like the writer had too many balls in the air so he decided to just drop them all and call it a day. Or maybe I just missed something. Maybe if I were to see it again and pay very close attention, I might find something that would make this ending suddenly artistic or metaphorical or just plain cool. I wouldn't mind seeing it again because the rest of the movie is so good. I just wish I had a better feeling at the end.

Some movies really come through for you in the end. You're left with the story pulled together in some clever way you didn't see coming or with everyone somehow getting what they deserve or with a really beautiful or romantic moment or a witty quip that fits. Sneakers. The Shawshank Redemption. The Philadelphia Story. Casablanca. Even the 40 Year Old Virgin ended with a very creative scene that summed up the characters and story of the entire film and made me laugh.

Other movies are well made and even enjoyable throughout but they leave me wishing for a better ending. The Departed definitely falls into the latter category. There were a couple of very specific things thrown into the story that I thought HAD to be significant and I waited for that payoff, only to have it not come. Unfortunate, because I spent most of the movie thinking it was the best thing I had seen in ages.

Now I'm curious about what movies you thought didn't live up to their promise in the end.

[inuvik]

Hmm--I'm sure I'll think of more later, but for now--the one that immediately springs to mind is Open Water. I couldn't believe that they both died! That totally broke the suspense genre's expectations. I swear the feeling in the theatre was one of shock and disbelief.

I'm aware now it's a true story, but I wasn't at the time, so it was a surprise to me. The normal catharsis that you get from these films "when it all works out at the end" wasn't there. The ending just felt really flat and empty to me.

[housemouse]

Birdy with Matthew Modine and Nicholas Cage is the first movie to come to mind. This is a great movie, Matthew Modine plays a Viet Nam vet who is has retreated into himself, stopped speaking, and taken on the mannerisms of a bird. Nicholas Cage is is old buddy, who is still healing from severe facial wounds, brought in by the psychiatrist to help Modine's character. It is just a great movie to watch, Cage made it before his acting talent was swallowed up by his ego. But the end - what a cop out. Just a complete disappointment, I still turn the movie off before the final scene because I can't take the ending.

Inside Moves (directed by Richard Donner), staring John Savage and David Morse. The movie wasn't overwhelmingly great, but it was ok, and it was ruined by a sappy ending. Then there are Radio Flyer, and The Firm (I hated the ending of the book when I read it, the movie was true to the book so the ending was also bad).

Modified to Add:

In the cateory of great endings I have to put the first two Godfather movies. Those are two perfect endings.