MovieChat Forums > Still Alice (2015) Discussion > Did anyone think the end was fairly abru...

Did anyone think the end was fairly abrupt?

posted 10 years ago by ObservationBlogger
22 replies | jump to latest

I thought the movie was really good. Thank God they showed a rich family suffering. Can you imagine watching a poor woman with a *beep* up family and no vacation home going through all this *beep* Who would want to see that? I liked how someone else described the setting - 'Hollywood class porn'.
Julianne Moore brought her A+ game here, but did anyone else feel a bit let down by a seemingly premature ending?

Like the premature near successful attempt to kill herself in the movie, the movie seemed to stop just short of feeling a more whole movie. It left the story and Moore's character teetering in a kind of..'well the viewer doesn't really want to see more of Julianne's character so *beep* up'. It stayed too safe for my liking. I wanted to see more in line with Jeffrey Rush in the second half of Shine jumping on that trampoline. May be not a trampoline, but you get the gist.

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[–] jharmon64 9 years ago

Agreed

Not sure how to make it better though.

[–] khruzek 9 years ago

No. I liked the ending with her remembering the good times in a semi coherent moment.

We all know what was going to happen to her. Why do we need to see it? It's a horrible disease, and I think the point was for more understanding for the person suffering from it, and the toll it takes on the family.

Beautifully done.

[–] jharmon64 9 years ago

Fair point.

Not the fault of the film maker, but I watched this on Starz or Encore and immediately when they showed the 2 on the beach/flashback, they moved the movie to a small box in the corner (less and a 1/4 the size of the screen) and started showing previews for one of their shows.

Didn't even allow us to absorb the ending.

[–] DreamsAgain 9 years ago

Yes, and yes.
I just watched it on SHOWTIME and the movie ended to quickly that I thought is was a commercial break, but then I remembered that SHO doesn't HAVE commercials.
Not sure why the Director decided to end it so FAST like that.
??
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[–] mmitchell355-2 9 years ago

I think the "perfect" woman, with the "perfect" life, developing the disease was the point of the movie. She had everything. Her biggest problem was a daughter acting, rather than going to college. Watching Alice's life crumbling was horrible. Like you, I could not imagine this happening to a "ordinary" women. That would be even worse.

The movie was told from Alice's point of view. You don't know what she doesn't know. The only scene, that I can think of without Alice, was the one when Lydia moves back home (the scene, with the father crying in his daughter's arms).

The movie jumped, from scene to scene and month to month.The viewer was suppose to be as jumbled up as Alice. And I think that is why the movie seems to end abruptly. Alice's
ability to know what was happening was ending. Without Alice's point of view the
movie was over.

[–] DreamsAgain 9 years ago

Good explanation, Mmitchell355-2.
TXS!
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[–] IL_Maestro 9 years ago

Actually i was just thinking about that kind of end 5 seconds before it happened
i just thought do we have to watch her dying too? can't they just stop it there?
because a lot of movies end with death, this movie wasn't telling her life story but rather how she and her family were affected by the disease
it started with her forgetting in that lecture after her birthday dinner to introduce the characters and show them a bit
so it was just about a certain amount of struggling and i like the idea of not showing more of it as we already got the point.

It is never about what happened, it is only how you look at it!

[–] ObservationBlogger 9 years ago

I have to see it again. You make some valid points.

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What are your favorites?

[–] Doctor_Mongoose 9 years ago

End was abrupt in the same way the disease is abrupt end to Alice's life. It is an obvious artistic choice. Having said that, it is always nice when a deliberate artistic choice doubles up as a cop-out :P

[–] smlfc245 8 years ago

The ending is abrupt, because that's what happens with the disease process. It's relating art to life.