I love French movies. Most of them have a distinct character of their own, and I always enjoy watching them. Last night we watched Je Prefere Qu’on Reste Amis, a good and easy 2005 movie casting Gerard Depardieu and Anni Girardo. I was satisfied with it all the way until the very last minute. The film directors shot a beautiful, easy-to-watch movie, but left it so open-ended that it is a bit hard for the viewers to presuppose which ways the further development of life stories could take.
Today I’ve looked for the movie’s reviews/ranking online, and found exactly what I was looking for at the Internet Movie Database:
I bet the majority of these voters were generally satisfied with the movie (again, I personally believe it is a well shot and a very entertaining film!), but they were likely not happy with the same think I’m not happy with — the abrupt way the film ended. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for open-ended movies that encourage the spectator to think; but you gotta give the viewer all of the necessary information for them to think up their own continuation scenarios, or make their own conclusions. When, however, a movie just stops at a point where the viewer is lacking factual information, it just weakens the impact… It’s like a book without a conclusion, or a online marketing initiative without a call to action. It looses its power, because the final (and such important!) chords are missing…