MovieChat Forums > La migliore offerta (2014) Discussion > Help I don't get the end! **SPOILERS**

Help I don't get the end! SPOILERS

posted 9 years ago by oldahus
16 replies | jump to latest

I know the girl mentioned the Night and Day place, but why did he go there? was he going to wait there indefinitely?

What was that he found in the trunk of the car under the catalogs near the end? Something broken from an electronic device?

Was his butler in on it?

So, after the mental hospitalization and the motioned stress reliever (or what ever that rotating thing is called), he finally decides he is still in love with the girl?

I'm thinking it's because he had never felt love before and because she was his first and only sexual experience.

It must have been easier for him to accept that somewhere, somehow, she still loved him (because she said she would), than to believe she was fully a "forgery"

[–] phoongdan 9 years ago

He waited at the Night and Day Cafe for her to show until he went insane and was later institutionalized. The scenes are out of order chronologically - it's a flash back to what happened after he found out he'd been scammed, but before he went insane. The scenes with him in the nut house is how his life ended.

[–] schewbacca 9 years ago

Not true. He was institutionalized AFTER his paintings got stolen, rehabilitated, then moved to Prague to try and find her. Real Claire even said it's was 18 months since Oldman last visit.

Wikipedia page also confirms this.

[–] phoongdan 9 years ago

Wikipedia is not a reliable source as anyone can edit it.

[–] Splasharina 9 years ago

I have a different interpretation from the other poster. I thought the final scene was really the final scene chronologically. He was released from the mental hospital, but he he was still insanely deluded and emotionally broken and always would be.

I have the same question about the piece in the trunk of the car, though! Something to do with the lock on his "gallery"?

[–] Splasharina 9 years ago

Okay, reading around the board, it seems the thingy in the trunk was a tracking device, as we had seen one earlier in the movie when he provided it to one of his customers who was trying to track her aunt. (I myself missed that part, as I watched the movie out of one eye while I was doing other things.)

So now Oldman realizes the scammers were tracking his movements all along.

[–] kirbynintendo 9 years ago

While the scenes at the end are played out-of-sequence, I believe the final scene is actually the last thing that happens. At that point he realizes and accepts the fact that he's been conned, and yet he still holds onto the tiny little bit of hope that Claire, somehow. did have some genuine feelings toward him. And he was willing to sit & wait for as long as it took to find her again, and ask her. Tragically sad.

[–] phoongdan 9 years ago

Sure, that's possible too. But I like to think he ended up in the nuthouse and was reflecting back on what put him there. But whether he's in the nuthouse or waiting everyday at the clock cafe for her to return is equally insane.

[–] rod775-1 9 years ago

How did the conmen know that he would find or even steal those animatronic gears amongst all that "junk" in Clare's villa. Their scam all depended on those damn gears. Just Not plausible.

[–] shruti-bittu 9 years ago

I wondered about that too..also how did Robert and his team know that Oldman had all those expensive paintings hidden somewhere in his house? was his aide (the old guy who bids for him) Robert's accomplice too..?

[–] GuineaPig 9 years ago

The conmen set up the entire house. Remember that the midget woman told them that the house was rented by a bunch of actors. Also the painting of Claire's mother was made by Oldman's aide. Remember he tells Oldman during his last bid that he sent him a painting as a gift and the painting had his signature behind. That means his aid created the painting of Claire's mother and was the one who probably set up the entire scheme by hiring some actors and filling the house with antiques of his own collection.

This is not a signature!

[–] shruti-bittu 9 years ago

Oh yeah.. I think that was a key reveal(Claire's mother's painting was by Oldman's aide), I kinda missed it while watching but now I can remember... thanks for the answer!

[–] nimrond 9 years ago

Billy was clearly the one pulling the strings. It was his revenge for a lifetime of helping Virgil get paintings worth millions and receiving very little for it - most importantly, never receiving any form of recognition by his 'friend' for his own art. Virgil never even agreed to selling one of his paintings, something Billy seemed to expect of him.
Thus, he sets out to not only steal his collection of master pieces (which are certainly hard to monetize anyhow) and to drive him into madness but manipulating him into opening up, into loving and eventually being betrayed. If the whole thing were about money, they would probably just torture him for the code to his hidden room. Virgil couldn't really call the police anyhow. So the plan really was a highly complicated act of revenge.

If you listen closely, you might even suspect that he was the 'director' calling 'Claire' to change the plan to 'the happy ending'. (The first call was likely to the real lover of the actress of Claire.)

[–] Bill-i-am 9 years ago

"How did the conmen know that he would find or even steal those animatronic gears amongst all that "junk" in Clare's villa. Their scam all depended on those damn gears. Just Not plausible."

I disagree. Virgil wrote his thesis on the man (can't remember the name right now) who created the automaton. The scammers had done their research. The parts of the automaton were PLANTED because the scammers rightfully expected the parts would be of interest to Virgil.

[–] morganseer 9 years ago

I don't think he was in a nuthouse. I believe he had a stroke and was in rehab - hence the wheelchair. The gyroscope oscillator is part of his recovery. He fights to get better, that sounds sane to me. The visit to Prague is consistent with his obsessive-compulsive personality, i.e. leave no stone unturned. Perhaps the implication is that he will always look for Claire, the only real bright spot in his lonely existence.

[–] nastynasqb 9 years ago

That makes sense now that he said it had been placed their recently as it was rusted on one side.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (41638798) 9 years ago

Yes. As above.

Virgil did his thesis on the artist who made the automaton.

Another thing Billy would know, as a consummate con artist.

And we of course knew Billy was in charge of the long con with Robert and Claire, because Billy did the painting of the woman in the ballet costume that Claire told Virgil was her mother.

Then at the end of Virgil's last auction, he tells Billy he sent him a painting to show him what a great "artist" he is. And Billy goes home and turns over the painting to see the inscription from Billy.

So, Billy's brag about being a "great artist" was an f-U double entendre: Billy really meant, he was a great CON ARTIST.

It was the ultimate poke in the eye with a stick--all the way around.

Billy won. He might ALWAYS have been a con artist and latched onto Virgil at the first seeing the opportunity to fleece Virgil someday given his weaknesses as a person.

It's likely all that expensive furniture and fittings in the villa could have come from years and years of Billy's cons of other people.

He might just be a full-time con artist as a career. We saw how Virgil never knew anything about his friends or employees, really. Billy told Virgil he wanted to be an artist but how much did Virgil really know about him?

He could have been setting Virgil up for YEARS (while he did other lucrative cons the whole time.)