I loved this movie, but at the grand closing concert I kept looking for Rowena. Did anyone else wish she'd come back to pay her respects? Were others curious as to whether she'd become a Broadway star? There was definitely a sense that a significant student was missing from this farewell concert. Perhaps they just didn't know what to do with her but surely creative screenwriters could have had some touching or clever moment here.
shareDefinetly!
Every parting from you is like a little eternity.
she was in the audience, she was in drag. just kidding.....
loved the movie.
i think the reason that she didnt come back at the end was to promote the notion of her being a really ambiguous character. she was his muse, and not really anything more. where she was in the closing of that movie is unknown to the viewer, and i personally thought that added to it.
shareI agree with you, bradotcom.
It has been a while since I dug out my DVD of this film but I have always felt that she was left out symbolically. Since Rowena no longer held sway over him emotionally then she was not someone who he needed to know that he had influenced. As muse (as you mention) she was not part of his true opus, the lives of those whom he had shaped. She was destined for a stage somewhere bigger than his high school and knew it in her heart before she ever met him.
Just my opinion, of course. This movie is one of my all time favorites but I try not to overwatch it to keep the emotions strong for each screening. Incredible screenplay, command performances.
"They took the bar! The whole @#$%ing bar!"
i cry at the end, every time...
~Nothin' I can say, a total eclipse of the !~
I do too!
I saw "Rowena" on I believe Grey's Anatomy or some such last week. She really looks old. I must be too then, but that was only 10 years ago. I mean, she looked REALLY old.
Michigan State University
Go State!
www.spartantailgate.com
You know it's funny. I was watching this movie in Sign Language class and at the end we all wished that Rowena would make an appearance at the last symphony. Oh well....there should be a directors cut..lol
share"Rowena" is Jean Louise Kelly. She played Kim on Yes Dear as Greg's wife.
shareI THOUGHT SO! haha thanks
shareShe also appeared in the 1989 comedy Uncle Buck as the angry niece. A thing about that film is the composer is my cousin Ira Newborn.
shareJean Louise Kelly also played the teenage daughter in "Uncle Buck" with John Candy, another entertaining & touching film. Probably's John Candy's best performance.
shareShe was aged through make up. Happens all the time. Especially if the director doesn't want her present looks too identical to the actor's looks in another movie.
shareYes, I definately wish that.
At first I thought she was the redhead (name forgotten), playing the clarinet. I really wish there was some mention of her, like "Rowena couldn't make it, she's making a record", etc, whatever.
But if she did come, wouldn't Iris (wife) be upset, remembering the 'Rowena's Theme' thing?
I realize I'm going out on a limb by posting this, and it's fine if not everyone agrees with me. But whenever I watch the movie, I always have sort of an eery feeling about what happens to her. She definitely did have talent, but she was also very young and naive. When I watch the movie, I always have visions in my mind about her going off to New York, having a rough time trying to achieve stardom, maybe even getting into drugs, letting powerful men take advantage of her (many in show business likely would), and possibly even getting AIDS (seeing as AIDS would come about in 1981). Of course that's just my own feeling about her character. Perhaps that's why we never see or hear from her again.
shareThat's the impression I have too as far as what happened to the character. She did have talent; however, the real world is a lot tougher place. I could see her running to New York with visions of fame and stardom on Broadway and finding out how difficult it actually is; that there are a lot of other singers that were better and more experienced than her (especially since she is so fresh out of high school). I could also see her, in her desperation for fame, do the same thing as Coco did on Fame; and that is, fall into a trap with some sleezy guy that says that he is going to make her a star and later trying to film a porno with her. She falls for it and gets into that or she walks away. Either way, it would be a downward spiral and she might end up on drugs and get AIDS, and continue to have the guys take advantage of her. I can also see her ending up homeless in New York.
shareI know it's 8 years later, but I have two cents to add. She said before she left that "if I stay here I'll just end up waiting tables or working in some store,"...wouldn't it be ironic if she ended up doing just that in New York?
It's not as bleak as the homeless or AIDS thing, but it would still be kinda depressing to her.
You, seventeen years ago, were making up an absurd story of your own that had nothing to do with the movie.
sharejust watched this recently, and hadn't rememebered the governor. that was awesome. the impact of mr. holland on rowena's life would have been easily predictable. the impact of his attention and wisdom in the development of self-esteem in the governor was not.
share[deleted]
no no you guys all missed it . . when they panned the camera to the audience, it was a wide angle shot, rowena was there with the football coach. . .it was kinda hard to make out so you had to look close . .actually, rowena ended up being a nyphomaniac when she was rejected by her only true love, Mr. Holland, she went berserk in New York when nobody would hire her . . .anyway, thought this would help . . .
shareYou are a moron, and your entire decades' long presence here on IMdB is worthless.
shareThat was the coach's wife, not Rowena, idiot.
shareI worked on the film & can tell you that we actually did a shot of her returning at the end. She simply "slipped in" the back & stood & watched. THe hair/makeup team did a great job of "aging" Jean Kelly.
shareThank you so much, amyontour, for this little tidbit! Does this mean that if I watched the movie again and paid close attention, I'd glimpse an older Rowena inconspicuously at the back watching?
If so, it's a great touch, indicating that Rowena wanted to be there but not to draw attention to herself, given her past relationship with Mr. Holland. Also, I suppose, though she's a talented singer, possibly Rowena doesn't play an instrument and after all, the stage was for former students playing Mr. Holland's symphony.
It's a great movie - congratulations on being part of it!
I think the shot you are speaking of, amyontour, would've been an awesome way to include her in the end. Happen to know the reason it's not included?
Through Music My Soul Began to Soar
Superficially, I really wanted Rowena back. I love the scene where she asks Mr. Holland to play one of his pieces and she composes a melody to what becomes "Rowena's Theme". The screenwriters definitely considered bringing her back, but I think the integrity of the character prohibits it: Row wouldn't be able to face Mr. Holland twenty years after her proto-affair with him. There is also the posibility of a practical issue: maybe they couldn't find a decent look-alike of Jean Louisa Kelly.
shareThe first few times I saw the movie, I thought the same way. I also wanted to see the ex-principal, provided she was still alive. But after watching it (too many?) more times, I realized that the ending is not meant to show all the other characters, it is about Mr. Holland. Having a parade of important other characters would've detracted in my opinion. Im glad they left it at Stattler(?). and of course the governor. I still cry when she gives her speech.
shareI always thought that the concert at the end of the film was organized by his wife. Roweena not being there, I thought, was because hsi wife didn't want her there. Maybe a purposeful slight.
Just my thoughts.
Granted, it would have been nice to bring some closure to Rowena's character and to know at least some of what became of her following graduation. But I think the writers wanted us to see that she has aspirations bigger than anything small-town life will offer her. She may have made it big on Broadway, and then again she may not have! Mr. Holland did influence her when he encouraged her to go to New York, and she made what appeared to be a hasty decision by leaving so abruptly. But I think the viewer can speculate for him/her self Rowena's destiny!
No. The ending was great.
shareIn the original script she did come back, but they edited a lot of things. The script was so much better than the movie.
shareYeah, I kept waiting to see her, was a bit of a let down, but it is hard to fault this wonderful film, it gave me tears, lol, a great movie.
“Do not fear death... only the unlived life.” - Natalie Babbitt
We just finished watching this in my Teacher Cadet class, and my friend swears there was somrthing in a newspaper about the bus crashing, presumably killing Rowena.
I hate being patient
(Or trying to fake it)
7 days 'til "The Girl in the Fireplace"
I don't think I'll make it
I can see her getting killed in the bus crash as well. Another scenario I could also see is that she arrives in New York and faces another very sad fate. She does not make it, has a very hard time, gets involved in some sleezy movies, gets involved in drugs and men that would take advantage of her, she becomes homeless and/ or she dies of AIDS or starvation. I just had that eerie feeling about what would happen to the character when, instead of sticking around and graduating, she flees to New York in hopes of making it big there.
shareYeah I can see that too. She thought she was hot stuff and wasn't aware of the big bad world ahead of her.
shareAbsolutely!
share