Complex endings
by claudia-arrighi | created - 13 Apr 2014 | updated - 13 Apr 2014 | PublicSelection from Mick La Salle list of movies with complex endings. For the full list, see http://blog.sfgate.com/mlasalle/2013/10/08/complicated-endings/
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1. City Lights (1931)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers
Votes: 196,001 | Gross: $0.02M
"Another ending as wide and broad as life. The blind girl, now restored to sight, finds out that her rich benefactor is, in fact, the little tramp. A slight disappointment for her. And an education, too." -MLS
2. Frost/Nixon (2008)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell
Votes: 112,456 | Gross: $18.59M
"No heroes, no villains" -MLS
3. Munich (2005)
R | 164 min | Action, Drama, History
After the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josée Croze, Ciarán Hinds
Votes: 238,233 | Gross: $47.40M
A movie about hunting terrorists that ends on a note of moral confusion and despair. -MLS
4. The Life Before Her Eyes (2007)
R | 90 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A woman's survivor's guilt from a Columbine-like event 15 years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.
Director: Vadim Perelman | Stars: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Gabrielle Brennan
Votes: 14,889 | Gross: $0.30M
"Very powerful, reverberant ending." -MLS
5. To Our Loves (1983)
R | 99 min | Drama, Romance
An erratic young woman's family desperately tries to prevent her increasingly erotic ways.
Director: Maurice Pialat | Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Christophe Odent, Dominique Besnehard
Votes: 7,263
"Ends in the girl having grown up, but still carrying some of the baggage from her teen years." -MLS
6. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Not Rated | 131 min | Drama
A bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of a distressing night.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis
Votes: 79,885
"You come away with a complicated sense of who these people are and what they've gone through." -MLS
7. A Place in the Sun (1951)
Passed | 122 min | Drama, Romance
A poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere
Votes: 24,757
"We come away with very mixed feelings, some conflicted, much of it surrounding our sense of the American dream, what it means, and how it works." -MLS
8. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,796 | Gross: $0.45M
"We come away with a complicated feeling about everything and everyone. It's not a simple note at the end." -MLS
9. The Player (1992)
R | 124 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected, but which one?
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg
Votes: 65,761 | Gross: $21.71M
"We rooted for a guy that maybe we shouldn't have. We're happy, but a little queasy, uneasy." -MLS
10. The Mother and the Whore (1973)
210 min | Drama, Romance
The chauvinist Alexandre balances relationships with several women in the post-1968 intellectual scene of Paris.
Director: Jean Eustache | Stars: Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, Isabelle Weingarten
Votes: 6,681
"Relationships as they sometimes happen. Ends on a strange note." -MLS
11. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Approved | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Votes: 192,079
"Happy, but with sadness at the back of it." -MLS
12. I've Loved You So Long (2008)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama
A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.
Director: Philippe Claudel | Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grévill
Votes: 20,707 | Gross: $3.17M
"The emotions are overwhelming." -MLS
13. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
In post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Elena Altieri
Votes: 175,101 | Gross: $0.33M
"It ends on a note of sadness and exultation." -MLS
14. One Day (2011)
PG-13 | 107 min | Drama, Romance
After spending the night together on the eve of their college graduation, Dexter and Emma are shown each year on the same date to see where they are in their lives. They are sometimes together, and sometimes not.
Director: Lone Scherfig | Stars: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Patricia Clarkson, Tom Mison
Votes: 167,659 | Gross: $13.84M
"Ends sad and happy, in a moment that makes us think about youth and the mystery of time." -MLS
15. Down with Love (2003)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
In 1962 New York City, love blossoms between a playboy journalist and a feminist advice author.
Director: Peyton Reed | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Renée Zellweger, David Hyde Pierce, Sarah Paulson
Votes: 44,342 | Gross: $20.30M
"Very smartly satirizes the sexual attitudes of the 1960s but those governing the making of romantic comedy in our era." -MLS
16. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Passed | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Hollywood director John L. Sullivan sets out to experience life as a homeless person in order to gain relevant life experience for his next movie.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest
Votes: 28,512
"Funny, but serious, about the function of comedy in the world." -MLS
17. The Godfather Part II (1974)
R | 202 min | Crime, Drama
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,363,683 | Gross: $57.30M
"Michael Corleone is the world's most disastrous and pathetic success story." -MLS
18. The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
R | 77 min | Drama
A drama set in the days leading up to the 2008 Presidential election, and centered on a high-end Manhattan call girl meeting the challenges of her boyfriend, her clients, and her work.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Philip Eytan, Colby Trane
Votes: 17,214 | Gross: $0.70M
"The career crisis of a call girl becomes a metaphor for how everyone can become expendable in an economic disaster." -MLS
19. In a Lonely Place (1950)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid
Votes: 35,232
"The truth arrives, but too late." -MLS
20. Gone Baby Gone (2007)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two Boston area detectives investigate a little girl's kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally.
Director: Ben Affleck | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan
Votes: 292,846 | Gross: $20.30M
"The hero does the right thing -- and it turns out that maybe it was the wrong thing." -MLS
21. Grand Hotel (I) (1932)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance
A group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery
Votes: 20,872 | Gross: $2.69M
"A mix of hope and disaster, the spectacle of life condensed into one setting." -MLS
22. The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newlywed man on his honeymoon has second thoughts about his marriage and falls for a different woman.
Director: Elaine May | Stars: Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, Jeannie Berlin, Audra Lindley
Votes: 5,649 | Gross: $12.21M
"He gets what he wants . . . then wonders . . ." -MLS
23. Into the Wild (2007)
R | 148 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 657,967 | Gross: $18.35M
"We are left to ponder for ourselves the meaning of this life." -MLS
24. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery
An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 71,301 | Gross: $11.90M
"The defense lawyer mounts a magnificent case -- and probably gets a guilty person off." -MLS
25. Like Crazy (2011)
PG-13 | 86 min | Drama, Romance
A British college student falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa.
Director: Drake Doremus | Stars: Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley
Votes: 63,294 | Gross: $3.41M
"A great ending, with the couple making important, silent realizations." -MLS
26. Little Caesar (1931)
Not Rated | 79 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A small-time criminal moves to a big city to seek bigger fortune.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr.
Votes: 14,524
"The bad guy is defeated -- but he wasn't all that bad -- and the reason he's defeated is because he did something good for once." -MLS
27. Waitress (2007)
PG-13 | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Jenna is a pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep south. She meets a newcomer to her town and falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt at happiness.
Director: Adrienne Shelly | Stars: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines
Votes: 48,817 | Gross: $19.07M
"An ending that matches the movie's arresting mix of farce and drama." -MLS
28. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
PG-13 | 132 min | Drama, Sport
Frankie, an ill-tempered old coach, reluctantly agrees to train aspiring boxer Maggie. Impressed with her determination and talent, he helps her become the best and the two soon form a close bond.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel
Votes: 721,569 | Gross: $100.49M
"Sad, but exalted, and not sure what was right." -MLS
29. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Young lovers, and soon to wed, Hero and Claudio conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles, Benedick and Beatrice, to wed as well.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, Kate Beckinsale
Votes: 51,973 | Gross: $22.55M
"Everything's great, but when the party's over, there's another war to contend with." -MLS
30. Gloomy Sunday (1999)
Not Rated | 112 min | Romance, Drama
Follows three men who are in love with a beautiful waitress during World War II: an intellectual restaurant owner, a mysterious musician, and an erratic businessman.
Director: Rolf Schübel | Stars: Joachim Król, Erika Marozsán, Stefano Dionisi, Ben Becker
Votes: 8,401 | Gross: $0.22M
"German masterpiece ends on a happy note, but very mixed with sadness and tragedy." -MLS
31. The Young Lieutenant (2005)
Unrated | 110 min | Crime, Drama
A rookie policeman from provincial Le Havre volunteers for the high pressure Parisian homicide bureau and is assigned to a middle-aged woman detective.
Director: Xavier Beauvois | Stars: Nathalie Baye, Jalil Lespert, Roschdy Zem, Antoine Chappey
Votes: 2,639
"A police captain wins her case but loses everything. What does she go from here?" -MLS
32. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A naive youth leader is appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. His idealistic plans promptly collide with corruption at home and subterfuge from his hero in Washington, but he tries to forge ahead despite attacks on his character.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Votes: 121,359 | Gross: $9.60M
"This is what Capra does. He makes you suffer, then gives you the ending you want, but makes you realize that the happy ending is the unlikely ending, practically a miracle, so that a complicated feeling lingers beneath." -MLS
33. After Sex (1997)
97 min | Drama, Romance
The end of an affair from the woman's point of view.
Director: Brigitte Roüan | Stars: Brigitte Roüan, Patrick Chesnais, Boris Terral, Nils Tavernier
Votes: 657 | Gross: $0.34M
"Amazing film, written by, directed by and starring Brigitte Rouan -- starts off as a sex farce, about a fiftyish married woman who has a fling with a young man. But it becomes a rumination on the differences between male and female emotional nature. A remarkable film." -MLS
34. War and Peace (1965)
GP | 393 min | Drama, Romance, War
The Russian aristocracy prepares for the French invasion on the eve of 1812.
Director: Sergey Bondarchuk | Stars: Lyudmila Saveleva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Sergey Bondarchuk, Boris Zakhava
Votes: 8,339 | Gross: $0.13M
"Life doesn't turn out the way anyone plans it, but the survivors are reasonably happy." -MLS
35. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
R | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Three amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar
Votes: 272,986 | Gross: $50.00M
"Lots of ideas, all relating to NY in the seventies, and lots of mixed feelings."
36. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 288,318 | Gross: $104.95M
"Not a happy ending, not a sad ending, but the right ending -- and the right feeling." -MLS
37. Three Comrades (1938)
Passed | 98 min | Drama, Romance
The close friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman, who is dying of tuberculosis.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young
Votes: 2,077
"Like CAMILLE, sad but with an underlying feeling of victory." -MLS
38. The Misfits (1961)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A divorcée falls for an over-the-hill cowboy who is struggling to maintain his romantically independent lifestyle.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 23,402 | Gross: $8.94M
"Sad, but happy. Mixed up." -MLS
39. Gunga Din (1939)
Approved | 117 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
In 19th century India, three British soldiers and a native waterbearer must stop a secret mass revival of the murderous Thuggee cult before it can rampage across the land.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Votes: 12,796
"A comedy with a tragic ending." -MLS
40. White Heat (1949)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 35,732
"By the end, we actually like the homicidal maniac and dislike the undercover cop who's trying to ruin him." -MLS
41. Story of Women (1988)
108 min | Drama, History, Romance
A housewife in Nazi-occupied France struggles to make ends meet when her husband returns home after being wounded in the war.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, François Cluzet, Marie Trintignant, Nils Tavernier
Votes: 5,740 | Gross: $0.44M
"Fascinating finish. Huppert plays a woman who has little to inspire sympathy -- but by the end you wind up admiring her inability to be anything other than herself." -MLS
42. The Apartment (1960)
Approved | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
Votes: 196,723 | Gross: $18.60M
"Another movie that ends in complicated feelings." -MLS
43. Lady of the Night (1925)
TV-G | 70 min | Drama, Romance
A world-weary prostitute yearns after respectability and the love of an inventor.
Director: Monta Bell | Stars: Norma Shearer, Malcolm McGregor, George K. Arthur, Fred Esmelton
Votes: 793 | Gross: $0.21M
"With Norma Shearer, playing rich girl Florence and poor girl Molly. The rich girl gets what she wants out of life, and the poor girl has to settle for second best. But the rich girl knows she has missed a big chunk of life's experiences, and the poor girl has the expanded soul." -MLS
44. The Last Flight (1931)
Passed | 76 min | Drama
World War I veterans roam Paris, drinking and admiring a woman they recently met.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Richard Barthelmess, David Manners, Johnny Mack Brown, Helen Chandler
Votes: 1,391
"A movie about WWI fliers. They'll go on and live their lives . . . but will they ever recover from what happened to them?" -MLS
45. Home for the Holidays (1995)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson faces spending the holiday with her family.
Director: Jodie Foster | Stars: Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Durning
Votes: 14,558 | Gross: $17.52M
"Seemingly a comedy, but also a kind of rumination on the mystery of family." -MLS
46. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance, War
During the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart
Votes: 42,993
"Funny, but about a serious subject." -MLS
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