In the bonus track of the DVD version of "The Sense of an Ending," the screenwriter who adapted Julian Barnes's novel to the screen described the main character Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent) as "resistant and unsympathetic." I suspect, however, that film-goers will uniformly find him sympathetic, as he seeks to reconstruct the past after receiving a curious bequest from an estate that includes a private diary of his best friend in college.
One of mysteries to be unlocked for Tony Webster (and for the film audience) is young Webster's relationship to a curious and deeply dysfunctional family. On one occasion, young Tony is invited to spend a weekend with the family of the young woman that he is dating. Her name is Veronica Ford, and her mother's name is Sarah. But what actually transpires on that weekend is never made clear to the audience.
At one moment when Sarah is alone with Tony, she remarks out of the blue, "You won't let Veronica get away with too much, will you?" And when the young man leaves at the end of the weekend, he looks back at Sarah as the vehicle is departing and notices a strange hand sign, which is described in the film as "a secret horizontal gesture beneath a sunlit wisteria." Much debate is in order to interpret the innuendo and poetic descriptions in this film!
Neither the film nor the award-winning novel by Julian Barnes fully explain Adrian Sr.'s motivation for suicide. Nor does the film explain the impact that Tony's letter had on his friend. We only know that Veronica retained the letter and provided Tony with a copy without explanation of whether the letter had any effect at all on the tragic circumstances of Adrian's death. One of the tantalizing clues of the film comes from two of Tony's old school chums, who recall that Adrian seemed happy shortly before his death because he was in love. But was he in love with Veronica or Sarah?
In a subplot, Tony's daughter Susie delivers a healthy baby boy whom she names Joshua. Although Tony is happy to become a grandfather, he is nonetheless disturbed by the story of Adrian and his own faulty memory. After all, he had completely forgotten the hurtful content of his letter. He writes to Veronica, apologizing to her for what he has done. She receives the letter, but, once again, we know virtually nothing of Veronica's true feelings.
One of the best comments on the bonus track came from one of the performers, who described the character relationships as follows: "Its ambiguous." With such confusion and ambiguity, it is difficult for anyone to arrive at a true sense of an ending in this motion picture. And that is one of its major problems.
One of mysteries to be unlocked for Tony Webster (and for the film audience) is young Webster's relationship to a curious and deeply dysfunctional family. On one occasion, young Tony is invited to spend a weekend with the family of the young woman that he is dating. Her name is Veronica Ford, and her mother's name is Sarah. But what actually transpires on that weekend is never made clear to the audience.
At one moment when Sarah is alone with Tony, she remarks out of the blue, "You won't let Veronica get away with too much, will you?" And when the young man leaves at the end of the weekend, he looks back at Sarah as the vehicle is departing and notices a strange hand sign, which is described in the film as "a secret horizontal gesture beneath a sunlit wisteria." Much debate is in order to interpret the innuendo and poetic descriptions in this film!
Neither the film nor the award-winning novel by Julian Barnes fully explain Adrian Sr.'s motivation for suicide. Nor does the film explain the impact that Tony's letter had on his friend. We only know that Veronica retained the letter and provided Tony with a copy without explanation of whether the letter had any effect at all on the tragic circumstances of Adrian's death. One of the tantalizing clues of the film comes from two of Tony's old school chums, who recall that Adrian seemed happy shortly before his death because he was in love. But was he in love with Veronica or Sarah?
In a subplot, Tony's daughter Susie delivers a healthy baby boy whom she names Joshua. Although Tony is happy to become a grandfather, he is nonetheless disturbed by the story of Adrian and his own faulty memory. After all, he had completely forgotten the hurtful content of his letter. He writes to Veronica, apologizing to her for what he has done. She receives the letter, but, once again, we know virtually nothing of Veronica's true feelings.
One of the best comments on the bonus track came from one of the performers, who described the character relationships as follows: "Its ambiguous." With such confusion and ambiguity, it is difficult for anyone to arrive at a true sense of an ending in this motion picture. And that is one of its major problems.