MovieChat Forums > Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2012) Discussion > Glad that the ending...

Glad that the ending...

posted 12 years ago by kaiser100
4 replies | jump to latest

I was glad that the ending was not tragic. When I saw that it was a rescue situation I knew about the penchant for indie movies to pull a bait-and-switch by seeming to lead to a happy resolution and then kill off a main character. Having sat through several indie films that suddenly jumped a tragic death on me I was worried that this one would do the same thing with Jeff, and was relieved and pleasantly surprised when that did not happen. Especially considering they were going all out for a heroic ending and in films like this there seems to be a law that if you do something perhaps not entirely 'realistic' in day to day life, you then have to remind people life is not actually like that by killing someone off. So I actually regard the film more positively by deciding to spurn what is a cliche for its genre and going for the unambiguous happy ending.

[–] crustywaffle 12 years ago

I actually kind of wanted it to end up in tragedy, because to me that would have had made sense, plus it would have had made for a "happy" tragedy, something which seems to be missing in most movies.

By make sense, I mean that the entire build up was that Jeff was supposed to have a destiny of some sort. Every single moment of his life could be taken as leading up to that single moment of saving the two girls and their dad - so what happens afterwards? He fulfilled his destiny, it's done, completed. In the end I didn't see Jeff being any more happy than he was at the start of the movie. I got the feeling that at that moment he felt fulfilled, but still lost.

If any thing beyond a tragic ending, I would have liked to have seen a final resolution. To see Jeff become something that he was happy with, because at the end of the day he's still going to be living in the basement, alone.

[–] lulupalooza 12 years ago

Once Jeff heard that the saved girls' father's name was Kevin (TV news report)...you see the look of recognition on his face. His action brought undying happiness to someone...and he could now bring happiness to himself. So he gets up and goes to fix the shutter in the kitchen. A baby step towards his life moving forward. Action, not reaction, brings true fulfillment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhrz1-4hN4

[–] Whoareyouboatman 12 years ago

That's any interesting interpretation, is that a common trait that somebody will feel they have to bring happiness to someone else, before they themselves can be happy?

[–] arentol 12 years ago

I agree with lulupalooza, but I would also suggest that this movie was really about this family recovering from the death of Jeff and Pat's father. After over 15 years this recovery finally begins for all three in stages throughout this one day.

Pat was an older brother who felt he needed to be Jeff's surrogate father, but was unable to fill that role because he is not naturally a "fatherly" person. When he finally let Jeff, who is a father by nature, give him fatherly advice he partially released himself from this burden he had been carrying for almost 20 years. Then when he saved his brothers life he released himself even more, because that was the one way in which he could be fatherly, as a protector from harm.

Jeff, though his fathers death was not his fault, probably felt guilty anyway because it happened at a rough time in his life (adolescence). If we assume he was like most kids that age and was kind of mean to his dad at times, then he would likely feel guilty. By saving those kids and their father from going through what his family went through he released most of that guilt and began his true recovery from his fathers death.

Sharon, closed her heart, and nobody knew how to open it, nor even that she needed it opened... Until Carol, for her own reasons, opened Sharon's heart a little by actually being romantic. But it was watching her two sons do something heroic, something she could envision her husband doing as well in that situation, and which showed her that her sons were finally turning into men which she had feared they never would without their father, that finally released her and allowed her to open her heart enough to truly let someone in.