MovieChat Forums > Kate & Leopold (2001) Discussion > And they were miserable ever after!

And they were miserable ever after!

posted 8 years ago by benbagorda
3 replies | jump to latest

We are supposed to believe a creative independent and intelligent woman from modern times will be happy living in a past era where women weren't even allowed to vote, let alone run a business? She had worked hard for that promotion and she gave it away to be the wife of a guy she met just days ago. Was she so infatuated with this guy she was willing to give up her freedom, her career and every modern convenience to live with him?

But at least he is rich, right?

Wait, no! He was ruined, he needed to marry a rich woman to survive. But instead he married a total unknown with no fortune or titles. He lost his chance of saving his house and family name. They are going to be poor and trapped in the past forever.

And the two guys who remained in the modern era will have to explain her apparent suicide...

[–] jwallace-22518 8 years ago

For me, it wasn't about whether Kate made the "right" decision. It was that she made her own decision. Meeting Leopold made her realize that she had restricted herself to experiencing just a tiny slice of life - that she had put herself on an island. The bridges to new experiences had always been there, but she'd never allowed herself to cross them - she'd "never been to the other side of anything". She now understands that staying where she is and doing what she has always done is not what she really wants. It's only what she thought she wanted. Traveling to Leopold's world offers her a bridge to a different life, and she finally decides that is what she wants.

And I don't think that either Leopold or Kate would have been content to leave their 19th century world unchanged. They would have viewed its hardships as opportunities for improvement, and its inequality something to be corrected rather than tolerated. Leopold combines his inventive flair with Kate's insistence that he "suck it up and finish" what he's started, turns his ideas into reality, and achieves fame and fortune. Kate refuses to accept the role women are supposed to occupy, and joins the women's suffrage movement, which was already in full swing by 1876. I think she would have found it exhilarating - and probably much more worthwhile than peddling pond scum to an unsuspecting public.

[–] electrictroy 8 years ago

I doubt any woman would be happy HAVING the vote, and then losing it when she returns to the past..... anymore than some black person would be happy being an equal today, and traveling to 1876 where he is treated like an inferior piece-of-dirt.

[–] xanthas (3215) a year ago

It wasn't believable to me that an intelligence person would make such a rash decision that could never be changed. She basically knew nothing about Leopold or the era in which she would be living.