Movie had good acting and some funny parts. Vega and Sandler were wonderful. The ending went totally off the rails, however. James L. Brooks really shot himself in the foot; I'm not sure what he was going for with the final 10 minutes.
Anton Chigurh is dead and Spider-Man 3 is superior in every way to Funny Games.
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I agree, it was a perfect ending. I'm glad it didn't have a typical Hollywood ending. The culture doesn't always put school first- they put family first.
Why can't we accept that there are more valuable things than school and work??
I agree that it was a perfect ending for the reasons you stated. It caused me to shed a couple tears, and I'm not a guy who does that very often.
shareWell said. I agree too. (I liked the ending.)
shareMe Too!! Loved the ending. That more women would allow themselves the freedom to be that strong, clear-headed and considerate of everyone, and not just absorbed in themselves and "THEIR" wants, needs and feelings. It's too typical and popular to be a self-centered you-know-what, who is inclined to tell their children and families "If I get to do what I want, you'll be happier". So silly.
shareas someone else said in another post, this move does not make sense in several places, especially the ending, and if you think about it the beginning of the movie (the part where we first meet the Clasky family) doesn't make sense either. We find out that Deb was recently fired but she doesn't act like someone who's made a major life change. Instead it seems that she has been living this way for years, and is quite used to it.
She acts like one of those people who just doesn't care that they have children and who spends all their time running around shopping and having fun and working out (as a nanny I've seen a lot of this). She seems like the kind of woman who needs a nanny so she can have down time, which is 98.6% of her day, and not because she works or has some other issue that prevents her from taking care of the two kids.
Someone else mentioned that they felt the movie had been trimmed down a lot, and I agree. There are several unresolved issues, and several plot points that get picked up and dropped off at seemingly random points. Remember at the start of the film Georgie says to his dad, "are you as mad at me as Mom 'cause of what happened?" and while this may not have been important to the film in the end, they brought it up. Chekov said, "if you have a gun on stage in act one, it damn well better go off by act three," or something very close to that. They took the time to bring it up and yet we have no idea what's going except that the parents have different styles, which we see constantly throughout the film.
How else could it have ended? The point is that Flor is a woman with strong convictions and a fierce love for Cristina. As mothers have done throughout the history of moms, she sets aside her own desires and feelings for Clasky, for Cristina's sake.
sharei liked the way flor handled her own feelings but i still cant get over the fact that she was willing to let the scholarship thing go...how much does this sorta thing affect ur academic career in america??...can anyone shed any light on this?
shareWell I think the fact was that, if Flor had allowed Christina to go to this school that Bernice went to (school for spoiled rich kids), Christina would have lost her cultural identity and with Deborah involved in the school, the Clasky's would still be in their lives.
At the end we see that Christina is smart enough to get accepted into a college (I don't remember which one) but while she goes there, she still wants to retain her Mexican culture.
She ends up getting into Princeton (most likely, as the admissions office took especial notice of her essay). I think the ending is great. Flor makes all the right, yet difficult, decisions for the sake of her family.
shareFlor's relationship with her daughter had been interfered with so extensively by Deborah Clasky (wife) that Flor feared for her daughter's cultural identity. Also Flor seemed attracted to the husband. Flor apparently bailed because the entire Clasky situation became too much for her to deal with, especially regarding Flor's daughter. Agreed that there were numerous unresolved issues however.
Maximus: Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
Funny, I thought the exact opposite. While I wouldn't say I was moved by the ending or anything, it was the only part of the movie worth a crap. All the rest was atrocious, and Sandler's acting gave me more douchechills than the rest of his career put together (which is saying a lot). The other actors were all pretty good, come to think of it, particularly Leoni and Leachman.
Louie Louie you're gonna DIE
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I liked the ending. She stood up for her beliefs and for what she thought was best for her daughter. As for turning down the scholarship, I think that Flor knew that love and discipline was all that was necessary for her daughter to succeed. And she didn't want her daughter to turn into a neurotic, private-school snob.
shareI liked the ending too.
shareI did not like the ending much. It essentially ended with Flor being in love with a married man, her daughter suddenly thrust from a world full of spoils back to a poor life, Flor unemployed, John Clasky left to deal with a cheating wife although he is in love with Flor, Deborah (whom we all know was NOT going to change), etc, etc.
Yes, the ending narrative alludes to the fact that Christina is applying for a scholarship by writing an essay pertaining to what occured to her during the first 12 years of her life (with 99% of the essay focusing on 4 months of her life).
Trust me--I get the intent. However, I think it would have been much more powerful if they showed a quick montage of things that occured up to that point, showing some insight to whatever struggles/triumphs Flor and Christina experienced post-Clasky life. Great movie--horrible ending.
Flor was off the mark tremendously. She denied her daughter the companionship of the children, which is always very helpful to immigrant kids. By denying the daughter the private school education she denied her a huge advantage in life and in pursuing a university education. Here in L.A. public schools are famous for not providing much learning: their goal is to graduate the kids, no matter how uneducated they are! Who is to say that all private school children become neurotic snobs??? If Flor had had the right parenting ability she could have both kept the daughter appreciative of that solid education AND kept her from becoming the stereotypical private school kid.
Coming from a Latino background myself I've seen lots of Flors up-close; immigrants from Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, et cetera. It turns my stomach how many of these people live purposely avoiding integrating themselves into American society. They never learn English; they live with relatives forever; they expect their children to translate and take care of them; they make no effort to better themselves and get ahead; they dislike their children learning American ways (which I can assure you are FAR superior to many Latino customs...); they work low-paying jobs rather than learning new skills. Flor is a somewhat better version of all this--she does begin to learn English, after all.
I think it would have been best if the chef got a much-needed divorce and kept the highly screwy wife away from his children. Dumping the alcoholic/wacky mother-in-law would have also been a no-brainer (why did he subsidize her boozing all those years in the first place???). Since it was obvious that Flor and he were very attracted and pretty good people, they should have married. Hollywood happy ending? Perhaps, but the sensible one considering what happens instead!
WOW! You and I have totally different views of the ending, not to mention, the whole movie.
Since the daughter got into Harvard (and these things happen in real life) I'd say she did an excellent job.
And I believe that that's the whole point of the movie. An education is the responsibility of the parents, not the schools. Too many parents send their children to school and expect them to learn everything they need to learn at school. Parents should be there 100% of the time, making sure they don't miss school, making sure the kids do their homework, get tutoring, and the parents must go to school and meet their teachers and administrators. Basically doing their job as a parent.
And no, not all private school children are neurotic snobs, but in this movie, being around that environment was not a positive thing and the mother was able to recognize this. Usually, when a rich kid wants to act up and become low-achievers, then they have their parents money and connections to fall back on. Flor's daughter would not have had this option. It's cool being an outsider when things are going well, but if not, watch out.
As for divorcing his wife and keeping her away from her kids, well that would be next to impossible because even bad mothers have a right to see their kids. And maybe Flor didn't want to be responsible for a divorce, which is hard not to respect.
As for forgetting one's customs and becoming "Americanized," I am totally against that (unless it is illegal here, like marrying at 13 or something). America is a melting pot and it always will be. We can all learn from each other in, hopefully, positive ways.
As for forgetting one's customs and becoming "Americanized," I am totally against that (unless it is illegal here, like marrying at 13 or something). America is a melting pot and it always will be. We can all learn from each other in, hopefully, positive ways.
I have to agree. Having lived in Mexico for many years and having a Mexican wife, Flor seemed to suffer from "Orgullo" - pride. Some of the poorest Mexican women can be the proudest although amongst the elite class it's even more prevalant. They are very proud and think very highly of themselves - even if they are living in a 3rd world country and are not very worldly nor educated persons, they very much feel themselves above other people.
We saw the movie in that light. Flor was too proud to allow her daughter to accept any gifts (I don't suppose we were expected to think that the gifts would corrupt her daughter) since she couldn't afford to give them to her herself. She didn't want her daughter to become better then her either (as in receive a formal education) since as Flor said wasn't being like her good enough? The movie actually was sickening the lengths Flor went to to keep her pride intact.
We even felt that Flor only allowed the husband to seduce her to prove to the wife that she was just as good as her, even if she was only a housekeeper. When Flor tried to outrun Deborah it was so apparent.
So a typical Mexican women who is too proud to be a housekeeper yet having to work as one to support her daughter. Honestly, and I said this to my wife after the movie, if Flor hated seeing her daughter Americanized so much she should have just gone back to Mexico and make a small business selling enchiladas from her house at night (as hundreds of thousands of married women do) and continue to snub her nose at the rest of society.
Sure, it helps to have private school education, but Christina was smart from the beginning, she was 2 grades behind Bernie and already reading the same books she was, probably out of her own will. She was smart, and there's a saying in mexico, doesn't really translate well and I don't know if there's a similar one in english "a good rooster sings anywhere". In short, she was smart, she would get by without the private school education.
I have a friend who went to a public school in Houston, I remember my friend referred to it as a ghetto school. He gratuated as valedictorian and got a full ride to UT, is now getting his MD and PhD from UCLA. So it may not happen often, but smart kids from public schools do go to college.
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WHAT THE FVCK IS A BIEBER????