3 Great Movies That Bobble the Ending
In honor of On Chesil Beach, which was 2/3rds of a good movie, let’s look at movies that I loved, but have some cring-y endings that make me recommend them with qualifications.
The Hate U Give
The scene in The Hate U Give with her brother and the gun was not present in the book and has the stench of Hollywooding up a perfectly good story. I don’t love that scene. The rest of the movie? Funny, warm, caring, sad, scary. I love Star (Amandla Stenberg) and her family so much I watched this twice in the same day. In the theater.
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Oh my gosh, I love so many things about Crazy, Stupid, Love. Ryan Gosling as a Don Juan taking the hapless Steve Carell under his tutelage. Emma Stone in all her fierceness. Julianne Moore in her hurt. Even Analeigh Tipton’s underage pursuit of Steve Carell is still funny, though it’s fast becoming squirmy. But then there’s the graduation scene which is one hundred ways of awkward and a pale shadow of the greatness that came before. Just turn the movie off after the fight.
Notting Hill
It’s been 20 years of Julia Roberts films and nothing has yet topped Notting Hill as my favorite of her performances. Was there anyone better to play internationally famous movie star Anna Scott? Was Hugh Grant not perfect as the every man who fell in love with her? Was the roommate not endlessly amusing? Was that scene of walking up the street through the seasons not a great piece of non-montage time passing? Was there ever a better use of the phrase oopsy daisy?
And then there’s this weird car chase scene that has me asking, “Why? Why, Richard Curtis did you do that? It’s not really funny, and drags down your otherwise perfect film. Do like I do for the “Broadway Ballet” scene in Singing in the Rain and fast forward.
I know there are more out there. Leave your bobbles in the comments.
