To anyone that did not COMPLETELY hate this film...
I thought it was an OK movie until the end, which completely ruined the whole feel of the movie, and was way to upbeat.
I think that they could have showed the end scene to symbolize that he was pretty much totally crazy, and then cut to a scene showing the van crashing and showing Harries corpse or something, to show he was dead, to end the film on a more morbid note.
Does anyone agree?
I thought it was pretty fitting actually. We all must assume he ends up dying at the end, but to show his van fly off into the night sky like he was santa only tells us what might be going on in his head
share***SPOILERS!!***
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(Use some spoiler warnings, guys!!)
I think it's a brilliant ending, the first time I saw the movie I was laughing out loud and the image of the van banking up towards the moon. A cut to a shot of Harry's body in the ruined van would have grounded the film in reality too when as the other poster points out it's really about Harry's delusional relationship with Santa Claus -- after he crashes off the railing he in essence is "free" to completely assume the role of Kris Kringle, and that moment is suspended for him in time along with the fantasy of his van flying off for the North Pole.
Harry was nuts, but the film needed to maintain it's sympathy with his delusion, and to show his broken & dead corpse would have reminded us of the reality and changed the meaning of that which came before.
I agree with the two responses above. I just finished watching this movie, and I was completely expecting to see a shot of his van blowing up at the end, after the shot of it flying away ... which, as was pointed out, would have grounded the film back in reality and been pretty much what the audience is expecting.
The fact that this didn't happen kind of made the ending great for me. I didn't love this movie, but I thought the end was pretty different and cool. While it was crazy and a bit surreal, I don't think it leaves the viewer in any doubt as to what's going to happen to Harry ... it just gave us one last glimpse of his delusional world.
I liked the ending as it was. Reminded me a little of "Miracle on 34th Street" in that we have a sweet-but-crazy protagonist who believes himself to be Santa despite all the evidence to the contrary then at the end we learn they really were!
www.amazon.co.uk/Adam-Greenwood/e/B00A681FH8
www.amazon.com/Adam-Greenwood/e/B00A681FH8