MovieChat Forums > One Day (2011) Discussion > Deus Ex Machina? (Spoilers!)

Deus Ex Machina? (Spoilers!)


Would you call the ending a deus ex machina?

Or the fact that, Dexter is shown, having to cope with her death, negates it?

I felt the same when I saw The man in the moon.




I'm gonna take that *beep* camera & I'm gonna break it over your head & then I'm gonna come back & interview you about how it feels to have a *beep* camera broken over your head.

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Hmmm... I don't know. Isn't that used for when a problem is solved?

I felt the same when I saw The man in the moon.

But that's based on a real story. Andy Kaufman did die young.

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Deux Ex Machina basically means something that comes in and solves everything so there's a happy ending.

I'd say no: This wasn't a happy ending (sure it got a minor bit more hopeful after her death, but it's still not 'happy') and nothing was really solved - the very last scene with his daughter didn't really show at all any real resolution. I liked that though; you know he's slowly getting over her despite her being THE most important relationship he'd ever had in a turbulent life, and one that was there for nearly half of it.

Tangent: Remember the "If people ask how we met, I'd tell them we grew up together" line of his wedding speech? I liked that; usually this'd mean through childhood, but I think young/early-mid adulthood definitely counts as a formative time too, and one where people 'grow up' a lot!

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Twitter: http://twitter.com/aps87

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You are right. It was not a happy ending.

But the death did seem a bit imposed, dont you think?

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Oh no, I do agree the death was from out of nowhere. However, there's another famous tragic love story called, erm, well, 'Love Story' (no marks for original title names...). That's about some woman who gets cancer (or another terminal disease, I forget) and does indeed die. That plods on and on and on.

So there's a choice: Death out of nowhere or a death that slowly creeps up on you? Either method isn't foolproof or correct or better; I don't think a slow death would have worked here either. Nor would keeping her alive; sadly, to see Dexter's full character arc, we have to see how he'd deal with another tragic death. He failed in the test of his mother's death, clearly - he became even shallower and self-obsessed not to mention the addictions - so this time, we see him pass.

He passes shakily, which I'm sure over the whole year and beyond included more than just the nightclub fight, but he does indeed pass. Thats why I liked the 'resolution': He isn't suddenly perfect, or has even slowly become perfect - he's just human, but we can see he's a better person than when he started and will probably keep on getting even nicer.

If it were a slow death, I think his development would have been at Emma's expense: it'd be too obvious what the story was doing - "She's gonna die so pay attention to him becoming a better person so it's not for nothing!". I don't think his development was though, since he was getting nicer ANYWAY, without 'needing' to be nice because she had a disease. And then when she does die? We don't even realise it straight away. It's not until we see their first meeting again that you realise he had it in him all along to be nice and ask for her number and be friends - we just don't see it til the scene with his daughter that he's starting to let that nicer person be at the forefront of his actions!

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Twitter: http://twitter.com/aps87

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Dexter finally gets to be alone like he was at the beginning.

The morale of the story is that single men can be happy too! Go single!

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Death comes out of nowhere in real life so I would neglect to call this deus ex machina

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