DON’T WORRY. NO SPOILERS!
I’ve just seen two movies with endings that managed to surprise me: The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de sus Ojos, 2009) from Argentina, and Far North (2007) from the UK.
Movies that actually do surprise you at the end are fairly rare. Let’s face it, most plots are formulaic and always have been. Sometimes the surprise comes when you are led to expect a formulaic ending, and the movie maker then gives you a twist you didn’t expect.
M. Night Shaylaman pulled it off twice very nicely, with The Sixth Sense (1999,) and Unbreakable (2000.)
He almost kinda pulled it off with The Village (2004) but given the plot, there really wasn’t any way he could reveal the secret behind the village all at once, and he had to do it further from the end than the others.
He also seems to have pulled that off about as much as he’s going to. When people go to his movies these days thinking, “How’s he going to surprise me this time?” it’s got to be harder to pull off.
Signs (2002) just flat reeked. Aliens capable of crossing vast interstellar distances to conquer the earth are limited to hand-to-hand combat unarmed except for natural weapons once they get here. So one of the characters can take out a super-advanced alien – with a baseball bat.
Oh yes, and they’re allergic to tap water…
The Secret in their Eyes is not exactly a murder mystery, you know pretty early who raped and murdered the beautiful young schoolteacher. It’s about a detective (or court investigator, his function doesn’t seem quite equivalent to an American cop) who is obsessed with bringing the murderer to justice, because he’s obsessed and inspired by the obsessive love of the victim’s husband, and because he’s obsessively in love with his supervisor.
And by the way, his supervisor is played by Soledad Villamil who at the time the movie was released was 41, and a stunning example of the beauty of a “woman of a certain age.” Her character is gutsy and clever, and you have no trouble at all believing a man could fall in love with her and remain in love for 25 years.
The movie is about justice and corruption. The killer is caught early in the film and sentenced to life in prison. Then a few years later the investigator, his supervisor, and the widower find he has been released because the Isabela Peron regime has found his talents useful. And now they are the hunted ones.
It’s about vengeance and the question, what kind of vengeance is due a man who has taken everything from you? What can you take from him to equal what he has taken from you?
And it’s about love, and the courage to love.
There are a few surprises throughout the movie, and I shouldn’t give any of them away, but at one point you think, “Oh s**+! He’s going to lose his chance with the hot prosecutor because he’s too chicken to declare his love for her.”
Then you find, it’s not that at all. Arrrrgh! Can’t go any further. See it.
Far North, on the other hand, gives you a surprise ending not quite what you expected – but it doesn’t work for me.
Adapted from a short story by Sara Maitland, it stars Michelle Yeo, Sean Bean, and Michelle Krusiec, who in spite of the name is Chinese.
It’s about two women from a Siberian herding tribe living on the edge of the tundra, an older but handsome woman and her foster daughter. They are the last survivors of a band wiped out by Russians and they live alone, trying to avoid any contact with humanity.
Then they find a Russian conscript escaping from a labor camp and nurse him back to health.
Of course, by this time you expect you’re going to have a love triangle ending in betrayal and at least one murder. The only surprise you expect is, who’s going to do who?
The ending you get is a surprise, and kind of gross, and it’s a real temptation to tell you – because it just doesn’t work for me. I won’t because some people do like this film.
There is no setup that leads you to expect this to happen. OK, some are going to argue with me on that one. There is a shamanistic prophecy and some camera shots early in the flick. But there is really nothing to indicate the ultimate betrayer is capable of that particular betrayal. Sorry.
See it if you like. It’s visually beautiful, and the scenery ain’t bad either 😉 If you like “magical realism” it might be your cup of tea, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I’ve blogged previously about movies from various perspectives here:
Review of “Let Me In”