Ending ruined the movie for me

I just now finished it, and while I must say I was kind of half expecting this type of ending, I thought it had an equal chance of going another way... like, him asking to have sex, being turned down, and killing her instead.

Anyway, it was way over the top for her to just shoot him. He hadn't even penetrated her yet. She could have just held him at -racked- gunpoint and gotten the hell out of there, but no... she had to shoot him?

Total BS.


It's quite possible I may never follow up with anything I post.

This is a Lars Von Trier movie. Do ANY of them end happily?

I would have to agree with you that the ending was completely not enjoyable for me. I have read the comments about hypocrisy, misunderstanding by Seligman, etc., but I felt it was completely out of character for Seligman to try to have sex with her. I mean, what the hell was he thinking? She JUST finished saying that she was going to be that "1 in a million" person to overcome her addition and her sexuality, and that there was NO other way she could live. Basically telling him that she is done with sex, and after telling him all that she has been through he should have had a clue or care that she was being serious.

Yet, hours later, he comes in trying to have sex with her with his dinky in hand, PLUS he is supposed to be ASEXUAL. He doesn't even have an erection, and doesn't even appear aroused. It's like he is consciously and effort-fully trying (like REALLY trying) to destroy her goals, further demean her, cause her hardship, and all for no apparent reason. Maybe he doesn't understand the severity of his actions, but only someone with autism or aspergers might say : "but you've had sex with thousands". I mean really? Really? After hearing her story, and seeming to be an understanding person with some degree of "depth", the best you can say is why not me bbbbbecause you've had thousands... ! Bbbbut what about me? I don't even like sex, bbbbbbut what about me?

His character does not seem that capricious, and he acts completely out of character in my mind. I get this is a Lars movie and that he may have been trying to say something about humanity, but the ending was too inconsistent for me to bear although I did enjoy the movie in general.

I loved the movie and thought the ending was perfect.

To me one of the main themes of the film is how Western culture has laid guilt on any expression of female sexuality besides motherhood and single-partner commitment. If women deviate from those rules they are open to all kinds of abuse and oppression. The rules, of course, are entirely different for men.

Here's kind, patient, asexual Seligman, who has been as non-threatening as you can get for the entire film, yet in the end he conforms to the stereotype: Joe's a slut, so no need to ask if she wants to have sex, just hop on. His surprised reaction to her rejection of his advance has probably been uttered by countless men throughout history who were expecting easy sex: "But you've been with thousands of men . . ."

I also see a parallel between his assumption of her sexual willingness and many viewers assumption that the "Nymphomaniac" films are just pornography. "This is just porn, so I can ignore the important themes discussed in the film." Stop obsessing on the sex and look deeper.

"Push the button, Max!"

Poor Seligman got shot for nothing...

If only he could hold on a little longer, I think there's a pretty chance he would still get it by the end in a more friendly manner after she woke up and all. But instead he chose the harsh way.

Well, for me the movie was going great until almost the very end. It was an interesting, unforgiving and not sugarcoated view of a type of addiction rarely depicted in movies.

Then suddenly, the whole "your life has been an act of rebellion to male oppression" feminist speech from Seligman, out of the blue... wtf? What does it have to do with the rest of the movie? Her struggle was against her own addiction. Every addicted person, men and women, end up carrying a burden for their actions. Where's the male oppression she's rebelling against? She's got a job and no money problems whatsoever. She's got a loving father, she *beep* whoever she wants to, whenever she wants to, all kinds of men, better and worse. She gets royally screwed by a girl(P).

I think the ending, Seligman making a move on her and getting shot, resonates with this speech. The director needed something like this to justify it, I guess... I can't explain it otherwise. It's very sad because suddenly the characters become nothing but puppets in the hands of Lars Von Trier, and the strings are so clear it totally ruins the movie.

Anyway, I'll take the other 95% of the story, which was interesting, thrilling and very fun to watch.

I had that same knee-jerk reaction to the end but the more I think about it the more it seems like black comedy. Joe’s specialty in the film is finding men’s triggers as she does with the pedophile. While we were engrossed in her story and her "innocent" back and forth interplay with Seligman, we didn’t realize until the final moments that we were in one of those titillating tales she uses in her “debt collection." Watching it a second time, I actually think there are several times during the film when Seligman’s metaphorical dick twitches. What we saw in that last panel, was a man whose trigger had been pulled and Joe pulls her own in response.

The idea is that both of them tried to reverse course on their sex lives (or lack thereof) in that instant, which turned out horribly for Seligman (and probably for Joe, too).