MovieChat Forums > One Day (2011) Discussion > I don't understand the negativity toward...

I don't understand the negativity towards the ending. (SPOILERS)

posted 13 years ago by KyleCV
30 replies | jump to latest

I understand that people don't like the fact that Emma dies. Or the fact that it happened so fast and so suddenly. But if you think about it, isn't that how real life works? In reality, most people do not know they're going to die. They don't get to say sorry to their loved ones for everything they did wrong, or tell them they love them and always have, or even give them a proper goodbye. In most cases, life just... ends. Unexpectedly.

I'll admit, when I first saw the scene I was devastated and even kind of angry that the writer/producer decided to kill the main character, and in such a horrible, quick way. But I think it works, because the whole movie is rooted in reality. Real life is not perfect. These two didn't have a fairy tale romance. They fell in and out of love and friendship for nearly 20 years. Later, they finally married, only to find out she couldn't have kids and then just-- died. I've learned to accept and even appreciate the ending. These two soulmates spent 20 years together. We as the audience have to quit thinking about the future they lost out on when she died. Instead think about the countless memories and years they had before.

This is exactly why the movie ends in a flashback-- to show us as the audience that the old saying is true: ''Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened''. In the final flashback, Emma tells Dex, ''Whatever happens tomorrow, we had today''. That line in itself made me feel okay with the ending to their relationship. It doesn't make me happy that it happened. If it were up to me I'd have her stay alive of course. But the flashbacks at the end put everything into perspective and should help give the audience closure. That's also why the final words spoken in the movie, a flashback to the end of their first date, is so meaningful to her death and possible afterlife in 'Heaven'. He says, ''We'll see each other again'' and she replies, ''I know we will.''

There's a possibility for happiness even in their dark end.

[–] Nyu2883 13 years ago

Well the writers/producers didn't choose that ending - it's an adaption of a book, so there's no real changing the story in there.
Besides the book ended the same way as the movie did - with that flashback.

Though I agree with what you're saying. Sometimes life does just end like that. The flashbacks were nice and they fit the story well in this case and the ending was well done.
But I don't agree when you say an audience needs closure. Yes that's what they crave and want. If a movie hits you with reality though it's rare to almost non existent. So, I don't think it's a bad thing to let the audience walk out pissed, without closure or all messed up in some way or the other, because they didn't get the happy ending. Life doesn't give that to you automatically or on a regular basis if ever. And a movie who acknowledges that will stay in your mind much longer than any other fairytale-like, sugarcoated ending. It will have a whole different effect on you and get you thinking much more than anything all happy and bubbly, which is what good movies should be about. A good story challenges your brain and doesn't rain down on you just like that.

[–] jess_lyne 13 years ago

I also am totally okay with the ending, and I was when I read the book, too (and it's just as sudden in the book). I like the realism that, sometimes, just as life is starting to go well, unforeseen and often tragic things alter it completely.

[–] GaelicLass 13 years ago

We got closure; the only problem is it wasn't to everybody's liking. We all want happy ever after endings and this was more realistic for many people. I can't remember that saying about being happy and life happens along the way...or something like that.

I loved the ending showing them all happy at the start, including his mom.

"Sometimes you have to know when to put a cork in it."
~Frasier

[–] mrbwiz422 13 years ago

When she got hit by the van I literally mouthed, "You *beep*

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 13 years ago

I had a feeling it was coming but I was still upset haha!

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit' me!" Hudson in Aliens.

[–] annegelic_702 13 years ago

OP, you couldn't have said it any better.

The way it ended tragically, I think, leaves more of a gut-wrenching impact on the viewer rather than if they were to have a happily ever after - at least that's how I felt. And it just stresses the reality that life is short, live it to the fullest every day.

[–] Val-El 13 years ago

As good as the movie was... because of the end, it's not watchable again.

Happy New Year 2012!

[–] lierrevene 13 years ago

I hate the ending so much. But I don't think it was a bad choice.

Maybe I even think the story was somewhat genius. But at the ending, a few minutes ago, that's what I thought as well: I probably can never watch this again!

[–] EmilylnWonderland 13 years ago

Exactly. Why watch this movie over again, only to know she dies in the end?

[–] solether 12 years ago

I agree. And I think it's worth mentioning that people tend to have a more impactful reaction to a movie like this when the ending is bittersweet. It hits harder and lingers more than when everything turns out happy. [[OTHER MOVIES' SPOILERS FROM HERE ON]] --- Another good example of this is Lost in Translation. I wanted so badly to see Bob and Charlotte get together, but the movie works so much better the way it is with them parting at the end.

Some other good ones that don't end so happy - Atonement, 500 Days of Summer (kinda), Before Sunrise, Brokeback Mountain, Titanic (yes, its a good movie), Once, Edward Scissorhands, Love Story. This list could go on quite a while, but you get the idea. Romantic movie + sad-ish ending = lots of emotion.

[–] Mr-bravestone 13 years ago

I would have liked just a little more, some sort of closure between them. Maybe a hospital scene of him kissing her goodbye later on in that day. I had a hard time feeling much sympathy because it was just 'oh, she's dead now'. Then that was it.

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[–] ninispjc 13 years ago

EXACTLY, Silence! This is the kind of movie that is not spelled out, you either get it or you don't. And you got it. Totally.

[–] ofshoesandshipsandceilin 13 years ago

I had a bit of a problem with the ending because it seemed to go in a different direction than the rest of the movie, and because it kind of dragged on and on.

I know this movie is based on a book but after Emma died, it seemed to me that suddenly the focus was on Dex and how love changed him (which kind of makes Emma just a character device in Dex's story). But the rest of the movie seemed to be about love in general (for both Emma and Dex, both as equally important main characters) and how complex and fluid it is. So I felt like that was a weird direction to go in all of the sudden.
I don't know how Emma's death was handled in the book, but I know the movie made it kind of weird and let it overshadow like the first 3/4 of the movie.

I also felt like the movie pretended to end and then kind of dragged on.

I thought the movie would end where Dex was on the hill with his daughter. That would have been a sufficient ending, his daughter having put the earbuds in her ear, telling Dex "You know what you are." Dex is a happy and changed man after having loved and been loved by Emma.

But then we go back to the first day that Emma and Dex spent together, which started an entirely new ending, I felt.

It should have been either one or the other-- with the two endings it kind of dragged out my sense of closure and tired me out.

(Or maybe I unknowingly saw some kind of director's cut and I'm making a total fool of myself.)

Overall, I liked the movie, but the ending was a bit iffy for me, and not necessarily because Emma died.

[–] PrickWithAFork 13 years ago

Silence, you explain it very well, that life is like that. In the book, the line that describe's Em's death is heartbreakingly banal - something like "And then Emma, and everything she ever thought or felt, died".

You're right, life, and death, ARE like that. Sudden, random and ruthless, and everything is gone in a flash, never to return. Yes, you leave an effect on people (and that's a great thing to aim for), you leave a "spirit", but that's it. You're in the ground, or you're ashes, and you're loved ones will NEVER hear your voice again.

At times of bereavement, I have in desperation hoped for an afterlife where I would meet that loved one again and get the chance to say goodbye or tell them I loved them, because I didn't when they were alive, but then you realise it's never going to happen. In the movie and the book, Dex finds comfort in his daughter (and in the book in a new love) - life is for the living, as they say.

I'm a Prick With a Fork.

[–] bea37 13 years ago

I like both the movie and the book, but I didn't like the ending for a different reason: I thought it was an easy way out of the story. Death is very often used in love stories in general, because it's difficult to end them in a realistic way - not a fairy tale ending, but a "and then they tried to be happy", which would fit well in the case of Emma and Dexter.

I find it interesting that many people here are saying that her death was realistic. Well, of course, everybody dies. But Romeo, Juliet, Jennifer Cavalleri (the girl in Love Story), Jack (Titanic), Nicholas Spark's characters etc. etc. all died for the same reason: either you end your love story with a kiss/a wedding or with a death, because realistic love is a day to day struggle that nobody wants to see in a movie.

And, as another poster said, I also thought the chapters of the book and the scenes of the movie after Emma's death are sort of off, as if the writer didn't know exactly what to do without her.

[–] lamont-hard 13 years ago

I did not care for the ending do to he had already lost his wife and mother, so i felt that was enough grief for him. After twenty years i felt he should have gotten some happiness from him and her persevering through it all. Every one does not feel a movie is better because it makes you think as some posters are saying.... you should think and feel like they do about there spin on a movie.... There is an ever greater or at least equal thoughtful ending as I described. Both work for some viewers

[–] ninispjc 13 years ago

But he did find his happiness. In his daughter, and in learning how to embrace the memory of Emma and their time together with a smile rather than tears. And he was only 46 or so when the story ended. We know he's going to be ok, so just because we don't see him find love again, doesn't mean he won't. That's what makes it real. There are a lot of people who do in fact go through that much tragedy in their lives, and their happily ever after doesn't look like the end of a Hollywood movie, finding their soul mate and living happily ever after in marriage, etc. Finding your happiness by appreciating and making the most of what you have, rather than having all your dreams drop in your lap, that's real. That's what this movie was about.

[–] bmis86 13 years ago

In the book version he actually finds a new woman a couple of years after her death, but I guess to not put the viewers too much off, they wrote her out..

The book is SO much better through.. Not that I thought it was a bad movie, just its written from both their narratives, where you get inside each of their heads and emotions for each other, and there are many many small, but very telling things in the book, about how their relationship is and how each of them are always in some way thinking about each other, and how act a couple of times in their lifespan, fate is the reason why they never got together before their late 30'ties.. And just as a side note, I wish they had made the opening scene of their first night/morning together more intimate and longer in the movie..to establish more of a connection between them. because thats how i felt it was in the book - their whole story were just more beliveable..

Life is what you make it!

[–] Kariann1 13 years ago

I think it would be best to have read the book and see the movie. I like happy endings, so this caught me by surprise. It happened so suddenly that I screamed. Then I sat there with these raw feelings - no, not after all they've been through. Then there is what seems to be a second ending. That made it a little bit better.

[–] jamajessie 13 years ago

I haven't seen it yet. I was watching 21 and saw how adorable Jim Sturgess really is, so I 'm happy with the fact he doesn't die and horse teeth Anne does???? I might have to watch this one because of Jim. I don't like Anne. I don't know why??? lol