Why did Caroline look back at the end of the movie?? - Pumpkin (2004) Discussion

[–] lemonelephants 14 years ago

As they were walking away, she asked him, "Pumpkin, when you asked me about the world, did you mean that literally or metaphorically?" refers to a conversation they had earlier in the movie. When he responded, "What?" She turned and looked back. Of course, we have to remember the earlier conversation in order to interpret her look. But I think it meant, 'You see? None of that matters; love and being real is what matters.' I think she accepted him 100% as she got his mother's blessing (the mother finally accepted them being together), and she finally accepted her love for him as real, regardless of how 'inappropriate' it appeared to everyone else. She got immediately involved with him and asked him, "Should I call you Jesse now? That is your name." and he said, "No, Pumpkin's just fine." She was going to stick with him. That's what she realized and why she showed up to his competition and seeing him confirmed it for her.

reply

[–] madsketcher 14 years ago

This whole movie is full of jokes; I'm going to have to go back and re-watch it again as I really had no idea what I was getting myself into before hitting "play".

In staying true to the movie's subtle (and not so subtle) humor, the look that Carolyn shoots the viewer couldn't have been ANY clearer. Up until that moment, she had been romanticizing Pumpkin. That seemed to be the only "wink" in the film; everything else was pretty poker-faced.

reply

[–] Mr_Ectoplasma 13 years ago

I loved this movie in high school and re-watched it tonight for the first time in several years, and I agree with everyone who has said the look suggests an "uh oh" moment for her. It's a foreshadow of what's to come in their relationship because, despite on some levels, she and Pumpkin will never have an entirely symbiotic relationship.

There are other layers to the film though and it's complicated and that's what I like about it. While she can't communicate with him like she can with other people, he also represents a sort of ticket away from the expectations of her ritzy Malibu society-girl lifestyle, which I think in the end is a benefit to her. She starts out at the beginning of the film as a conditioned sorority girl who is going through the motions and doing what's expected of her— what her mother expects of her, what her school expects of her, and what her peers expect of her. Pumpkin is the catalyst that sort of wakes her up to the complexities of the world that she ignored. The conversation over lunch with her mother illustrates this and her growing distance from her sorority does as well. She starts to see things for what they really are, more or less.

Notice how she's bored to death by her poetry class in the beginning of the film and questions her professor, "Why can't everything be beautiful and perfect?"; then about midway into the film she's having cynical freakouts in class and criticizing her own thoughts about all of that "perfection" she talks about in the beginning. Ultimately, it's a movie about her abandoning those ideals and a way of life that is not fulfilling to her. Whether she and Pumpkin work out is not the real point; the point is that her having met him changed her life and opened her up to see the world in a more realistic way. Whether she likes it or not, she really has no choice but to leave that lifestyle because she's broken down those barriers now and they can't be unbroken. She's no longer sheltered, so to speak, and she would rather venture into the unknown than go back to her old life (Kent, the sorority, etc). because she can see through it now.

reply

[–] Howlin Wolf 13 years ago

I think she realised that maybe he wasn't as intelligent as she'd been kidding herself about, and her look back at the camera was the moment she realised her mistake...

Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

reply

[–] dmfreck 12 years ago

She was breaking the 4th wall and looking at the audience. I think it was an admission to us that this was not meant to be taken seriously.

reply

[–] ss5mmyers 12 years ago

She realized then that he and her didn't communicate on the same level. She had created an illusion of Pumpkin being deep and fell in love with that. Carolyn mentoring Pumpkin was probably the first real thing she had ever done and she went on her path of self discovery to escape the shallow world she lived in and found how deep she really was and it was then that she realized Pumpkin wasn't deep as she thought.

reply

[–] BehindTheBeat 12 years ago

To me, I think its a great comment on "happy endings" in movies where the two main characters "ride off into the sunset" with each other. In real life, how many of these couples actually end up in serious long-lasting relationships? How many of them make it?

To me, that look meant they were all gooey-eyed and emotional for each other, but it just hit her that there was no way they were ever going to be able to have a serious relationship.

reply

[–] speedo58 12 years ago

I picked up on the references to "Cinderella" that were dropped throughout the movie. At first, Carolyn was horrified by Pumpkin, then began to see him as a golden coach away from her life. As the movie progresses, we see Pumpkin at the dance as very graceful and handsome. The other couples join them on the dance floor in a silent acceptance of them. The metaphorical clock struck midnight at that point. Then at the race before she arrives, he can hardly run because he is throwing his legs in the awkward manner in which he moved at the beginning of the movie. His gestures are more spastic and his face has gone back to the skewed appearance as before. Everything goes back to reality. As she and Pumpkin walk away, he is limping again. I also noticed at the beginning Kent seemed Prince-like: he was physically perfect, intelligent, but not attuned to her, shallow, and bigoted. After Kent began coaching the Challenged Athletes, she tells him that she never understood that he was such a good person. Kent was then in a wheelchair, as Pumpkin was at the beginning. The glance back was a realization that her fate would have been to be with a disabled person whether she chose Kent or Pumpkin, so she has become Cinderella.

reply

[–] trioxinforlunch 12 years ago

i haven't read through all the thread so i don't know if someone mentioned it but the ambiguity of the final shot shares something with Taxi Driver in that it is left open. was she looking back in conclusive profundity, foreboding or aggressive righteousness at her prior tormentors?

you could probably make ana argument for each and that's pretty much what i like about the ending. on the whole, the film is thematically interesting, layered and genuinely unique in presentation. kind of a more courageous Edward Scissorhands.

reply

[–] you_know_that_im_better6 10 years ago

Hi i know it's been nearly 10 year since you posted this BUT I think that it might be a hint to the movie: the graduate. If you didnt saw it you probably saw the simpson episode about it lol But anyway at the end of the movie the guy marry a girl and they get hapily into the bus but then they look back and they lookkinda worried....i think Caroline realise in the end that pumkin is really challenged and she might be doubting her choices? Watch the graduate and ull see if it fits it's a good movie actually and if you like/ simon and garfunkel songs well 2 of them were made for this movie :)

reply

[–] josephnatescott 10 years ago

"Why did Caroline look back, at the end of the movie???" Because it struck her that the real Pumpkin wasn't the one in her fantasy.

reply

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gljbradley 10 years ago

Unlike what a lot of people are saying that Carolyn looking back at us because she realized that she supposedly made the wrong the decision in choosing Pumpkin, I don't think so. To me, the look she gave was more of a knowing, warning stare at us and not realizing that she made a mistake.

reply