ending SPOILER ALERT

On the roof, he told Michele that she deserved to be loved. He said,"decide to be loved". He even said that she could learn to love him.

I think he had an epiphany when he looked at the glove that
Sandra gave him.
He decided to be loved. He knew that Sandra was the right choice. She loved and accepted him. He could learn to love her.

As to the ring....It was not given to Michele, so it wasn't hers.
He bought it for the woman he would marry. He spent all he could on the best he could afford.
There would have been no reason to return it for another.

I've known people who marry for reasons other than love and their marriage bloomed into a great romance.


"a malcontent who knows how to spell"

I think this was a totally realistic ending. Happens all the time. Sad but true.

I think that's what most people who have an unrequited love end up doing. The movie suggests that Leonard is thinking about attempting suicide again, and there are hints of a more dramatic ending. But, while such things happen in real life, I don't think they are a majority. Most people who are rejected move on, and choose to carry on with their lives. I think Leonard makes a pragmatic choice by settling on what he already has, instead of throwing it away. It is only when he learns that Michelle will never be with him that he starts to appreciate the safe, caring love that Sandra offers him. He likes and loves Sandra (and his parents, mostly his mother) enough to accept what life is giving him.

I really enjoyed the ending. Leonard had been living an unstable, depressing life for quite some time. I don't get what he ever saw in Michelle in the first place, but that's besides the point. He was crazy about her. He was excited about starting a life with her, but she was never committed to him. She ditched him for the married guy and he was devastated. He went down to the beach and appeared to be contemplating suicide again. Then he saw that glove and he realized what he could have if he goes down the other road...the road he initially rejected for Michelle. The glove reminds him that he has another woman in his life who loves him and wants to take care of him. Sandra is a good woman and she actually wants to commit to him. He would have a good, stable life with her and he would most likely fall in love with her. He just has to decide...attempt suicide again, keep living a depressing life, or committ himself to a good woman. He chooses to go back to Sandra.

I cannot decide whether it was good or not.

It's one of those A likes B, but B likes C stories, which generally don't turn out well. A and B have a lot in common so in this case B comes to understand and maybe appreciate A. On the other hand, Sandra seems to be determined to be his mother, whereas what he seems to want is excitement, which she doesn't seem likely to be able to give him much of. I wonder if he goes down this path that has been pre-made for him rather than a path of his own making whether he'll be happy enough or whether his eye will start wandering to other women, drinking, drugs, gambling or something.

I was thinking the ending would be that he would be with neither one of them, but he would realize that he had grown up a bit, developed himself and found himself stronger and more capable than he had been before all this stuff started.