The ending
Anyone feel like the ending didn't belong in the movie? I thought it was a little weak. Anyone else?
shareAbsurd as the whole movie
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MovieChat Forums > The Grifters (1991) Discussion > The ending
I thought the ending was perfect!... it blew me away!
shareI really didn't like the whole movie, I think they could of done it much better if they put the time and work into it. BUT! The ending blew me away...I never saw it coming.
shareThe ending is brilliant. It shows what Lily really is: an animal fighting for survival. She's willing to do whatever she has to to get Roy's money, including physically assaulting him. Of course she does not intend to kill him, but watch the transformation that takes place when she realizes she's accidentally done just that. She immediately cries for the loss of her son, but in an instant she switches back to survival mode and gathers up the money and races out of the apartment.
In Mexico senor, these are the years of sadness.
watching the whole movie i was expecting to con to be on the mom at the end, sort of like a matchstick men ending, was waiting for a blood packet, flashbacks to payoffs of fake doctors..this did not happen
i am satisfied with the ending they chose to go with tho...
shows that you cant change your ways with that type of lifestyle
Saw it on INHD2 a week ago. Thing is, they spoiled the ending right before the movie started where they explain (and show clips of the movie) what the movie is about. and yes, the spoiler was very, very clear. We (invited a few friends over to watch it) all groaned when we saw the major spoiler.
Didn't like the movie much; maybe because of the spoiler, heh.
Refresh my memory. What major spoiler?
In Mexico senor, these are the years of sadness.
Well, I'm only going to say this just incase there are some people reading this thread who haven't seen the movie yet: SPOILER INFERRED BELOW
What happened to John Cusack's character in the end as he was taking a sip of whatever he was drinking.
You mean INHD spoiled the ending. I get it now. I thought you meant something in the opening scenes of the movie gave away the ending. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
In Mexico senor, these are the years of sadness.
She immediately cries for the loss of her son
That's not why she was crying. She was crying because she wanted to do him more and now realized she can never do him again, because she is really sick and demented like that.
The ending would have been better if none of them killed each other but rather the press walked in on them doing each other and put it on the front page of all the papers. This would in turn humiliate them both into committing suicide.
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It's been 8 years since you posted this. I hope for your sake your sense of humor has improved drastically dude.
shareCould of?
sharei thought the ending was very weak, I kept waiting for a big twist or like someone said earlier the blood packets coming in again or jsut about anything... I waited but i did not receive...
I think the ending easily brought down the movies potention more than a few notches
Like Donkey Kong
The ending was perfect. And it showed how desperate, greedy, and pathetic these people were.
shareMaybe it's the fault of such great TV as Maverick, Rockford Files, but we have been conditioned to assume that grifters use their smarts to survive. I was disappointed that none of the characters turn out to be smart, just pathetic. I would have preferred a con at the end but, alas, it wasn't a movie about smart people.
The ending was taken right out of the book. In my opinion, it was the perfect ending for such a dark movie.
http://armedrobbery.blogspot.com/
Totally agree, very dark and disturbing. When she started coming onto him (her son, although he'd never known her as a mother), his total distaste, and her total desperation (who knows what BOBO was capable of), and then the accidental glass in the neck?! Awful, shocking, so so tragic....brilliant film
shareAt the end, does anyone else think that Bobo is back on her trail? The very last shot of the street, after her car drives off, a second car pulls out and starts off in the same direction.
Probably my over-reading of the scene but if Mr. Frears is reading and can answer it'd be appreciated! Fantastic movie.
I kept thinking that part was made for Faye Dunawaye. I couldn't buy that he would have been attracted to Anjelica Huston enough to even imagine having sex with her. She wasn't remotely attractive to me. But with FD the scene would have worked.
I hate to echo your comments five years later, but I just read the book and I think the movie captured it very well. Anjelica Huston hit a home run as Lilly and the ending was perfect.
shareI was completely mortified by the ending and felt it fit perfectly for the film. Anjelica Huston did a fantastic job.
Have a nice day!
I'm curious that no one mentions nor has no one noted in the movie connections area the lift of the "elevator to Hell" bit at the end of this nearly identical to the one at the end of 1987's "Angel Heart" three years earlier.
Angelica's ride down with the light casting shadows through the grill is much like the visual of the ride of the damned that Mickey Rourke takes. I wonder if that was itself a lift of a lift of a lift?
See the Wikipedia.com entry on The Grifters, which compares Anjelica Huston's elevator ride to a similar descent by Mary Astor at the end of "The Maltese Falcon". (Which was coincidentally directed by Ms. Huston's father.)
shareI thought the ending was excellent as a whole. However, the very last scene where she drove away in the car, I hated. I thought it should've been cut out. But that's just me knit picking.
sharethe ending was great. Each character had a horrible occurence because they grifted. Benning had to whore herself out for rent, cusack got a baseball bat to the stomach, and Houston- the worst of all, tried to seduce her son because of money.
sharel thought the ending was a let down,a bit flat after such a good film.
l rewound it to see if ld missed something.Its like the film fizzled out.
I dunno, i enjoyed it. What happened to Roy...that was suprising! And it leaves you to think, "what is Lilly doing/gonna do now? Will she grift more? Will she die from any more grifting and mixing with the bad crowd? How will the fact that she has killed two people effect her?". I guess I was just happy she didn't die in the end though, heh heh. (Lilly is my favorite character)
shareThe ending was superb.I enjoyed it. I think it made a strong case for why Huston should have won the Oscar that year.
Accountants rule!
i watched this film looking for a reason, any reason to sit through The Queen. It had Martin Scorcese's name on the top of it. It had three top-notch actors. Still, this movie was.... uninspired. I love slow films, but this was sluggish, it had no real purpose... oh hell, this movie got taqlked up so much that when i saw it, it was positively ordinary. and not even the kind of ordinary that makes you happy that we make films of every variety. It wasn't as well written as it is said to be. The best acting was handed in by Pat Hingle - 10 mins of screen time. the ending was a turn of emotion that goes against the cold feel of the film. all in all, a dissapointment.
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