Did anyone else think so at the end? Maybe I missed something, but didn't they just hang out for 1 night? Hardly enough to develop any feelings of love. It just seemed a bit much for her to be so emotional about a possible lost love from 25 years ago when all they shared was 1 date. Curious what others thought about this.
shareActually, I think that it was quite well-acted.
After a somewhat less than warm reception, hallmarked by Craig's distance from her, Ruth broke when she read, "Takes me right back...X" in the note.
At that point, she forgave young Craig, and that opened the gates.
I will just write my interpretation as I read a few comments and they are completely different and I do not want to poison my mind about this...
I thought it was appropriate. It may have been one night that his note referred to by quoting that song line, but she knew him longer than that and that one night was like the climax of their love, perfect. By reminding her of it he showed that he was (at least potentially) still in love with her and what it meant to him as well, something surely she doubted when seeing his dalliance that came soon afterward... It reminded her of how she originally felt about him and removed the doubt.
And in a sense I took that note, the way he could lightly write such a deep memory before leaving her, to be almost mocking their current chances of love, perhaps in a friendly way, but mocking nonetheless, not something he would do if he intended to chase her down. Perhaps to show that though embedded onto his memory he views this as something to be treasured for itself and not built upon, something from a different era. She knew as well from it being delivered at all that he had left again.
I feel like that note to her symbolized that it was over and that he was moving on. Him enjoying the company of the Eve character so soon after I think was there to emphasize just this fact. She was destroyed but he was oblivious.
I also think it was very obvious by their interactions after the funeral that she still felt a lot for him, but was holding back because of the social conventions and knowing she must grieve properly. It would not be the first time in human history a woman loved someone more than the man she ended up marrying. He was a bit harder to read, though it seemed that he felt something as well, but perhaps had a different internal reaction to it, though this is only really made obvious by his actions after that meeting.
To me it surely looked like the door was open to something more and the note was a creative way of whimsically shutting that door, as if him describing their deep interaction as "weird" afterward were not enough sign of his indifference/numbness. I doubt he intended it to devastate her but if she read from the note what I did I fully understand that being the exact effect it had on her. Just IMHO. And I think the ending made the movie. Her reaction was brilliantly deep. Leaving such an angel behind surely justified the title calling him a fool. And life is not always full of happy endings.
You forget that Ruth said to joe at the grave she went numb when boots had died .and couldn't shed a tear. She also didn't fancy boots from the off saying he was the type the picks his nose. She locked away her feelings for Joe for so long she'd lost the emotional capacity to feel anything, that was until she read the shake your ponytail line.
The moral of the story was .We all hold a candle for our fist love our first innocent kiss, no time can erode that deeply buried emotional high, we all end up with second choices , the fool was him thd flashback was hers .The final question has to be was she the fool or was he maybe they both were .
[deleted]
Great question, Doug. I hate to spoil everyone's perception but the ending scene with Ruth was a powerful scene that depicted Ruth coming to grips with the fact that she was still in love with Joe and had probably been living this great lie all the time he was gone. The two most powerful scenes in the film involved Ruth and Joe. The night they were together listening to Roxy Music, (incredible), and then at the end of the film when Ruth read that short note that Joe had penned. Ruth was quite upset with Joe when he once again was late. But that anger was for more than that. It was because he had left her. When she read what he wrote it was at that moment she realized that Joe did care for her and she cared for him. A tremendously powerful scene.
Of course this is my opinion. I loved this film regardless of some minor faults here and there. If you have ever regretted taking the wrong path in life,(as I have), this film will move you. If you never gambled in taking paths it might seem a bit tedious. Highly recommended.
cheers!
Well stated. Additionally, they've both led almost opposite lives. In the beginning Ruth makes the observation that neither of them are like most of the people they're growing up with. Joe goes off and does precisely what he dreamed of doing (maybe not getting there in one step) while Ruth has almost surrendered herself. She has 4-5 kids (obviously a major commitment), a husband who's a "nose picker" who she probably didn't really love, still lives in the same town when her dreams were obviously elsewhere, and looks to have lost her wealth to her husband's poor business decisions.
Joe's life is decadently self-centered to the point that he's ashamed of who he's become.
Absolutely no where in the film does it even implicate she did not love her husband or for the most part regretted her life the ending was her coming to grief with how she is a woman who has lost first her boyhood love then her husband and she needed to grieve some of you are looking as if her life was a mistake it was not.
shareWhen she's talking about him as a child, she calls him I think a "nose picker." Basically says, he's OK but nothing to get excited about.
Amy: I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
You have to watch the film From her eyes, Just think about it for a moment. She has not seen him in twenty five years. She had four kids with her husband there a many moments of joy with them and there kids I am sure she may have put him out of her life many years ago. She was not into him at all his whole visit. I can't believe how you see all that was said about her husband and you got the feeling she did not love him. The note brought back memories, It did not erase her memories of her husband. That one crying scene is just that, not a story of how her life was with her husband. It was Joe for that moment.
shareIt's been more than 11 years since I first saw this movie and watched it at least a dozen times since and recommended it and cried not only for joy but thrilled for hearing the music that I love so much but for what I've read here the reviews somebody I feel his missed the boat here yet I haven't read all the reviews this is the way I see it it's plain and simple if it wasn't for the mistakes made of youth she might have slept with him that night or soon after that night on the second date but as fate made have it Joe did it right by leaving because more than likely she would never met such a kind man like the man she married and not the man that Joe turned out to be. In that respect she truly missed what she had because she never would have had it if it wasn't for Joe and as he gets on that plane I think he finally realized that it is better that he not be in her life because her life turned out better and would be better without him. Just like Joe he did what Joe did the full thinking it was all about him. He did what a real man would do and he knows it. Like the poison he he snorts and drinks in his life he would be poisoned to her. As a song goes throwing your head back in a ponytail takes you back to when you were young is a time of foolishness fun and irresponsibility that which not only that day on the second date brought death to the young girl and to a relationship the fool was branded he didn't even know that she had marked him with the kisses but I think she saw Joe just like her like most women's intuition has done at the ignorance of most boys coming of age and turning into men but in this case he was just a boy pretending to be a man running away from the equal responsibility of a child's death to a land we call never never Land AKA Hollywood. For 25 years he lived the life of a boy not of a real man like Ruth has stated her husband was something that is rare to find she says a man who lives in the moment while still being the responsible father of 4
shareThe last 30 minutes of this film is fu -cking immaculate and so was her reaction. I balls out cried after her reaction and I havent seen anything like this in years that can drag a reaction out of me like this film did. Fu -cking brilliant
shareWhether intentional or inate, every action Joe makes upto and until the letter is foolish and selfish, the prostitutes, the drugs, basically his life hasn't changed, he is still making foolish decisions just as he did in his youth; cheating on Ruth with Evelyn, running away.
But I feel the ocean float is like a baptism, unbenounced to Joe he has washed away his old self and his remeberance and Reemergence of his old town serves as his edification, eventually concluding himself that "the only thing you need courage for is for standing still" ergo he should never have left, and afford me some interpretative liberties I'd extend this to mean he also should not have cheated.
He was on a path that could lead to complete happiness (and not just for him) but his trangression or mis step off that path towards the vixen Evelyn destroyed that future (this scene had an air of fantasy specifically Little Red Riding Hood but I'm probably reading to much into it).
In the end though there are damaged parties who learn only by remembering and that is the bond that is so tactfully established by Ruth's final outburst, she much like Joe recognises what has been lost.
We are meant to think that reading the line "Takes me right back", takes her right back to the moment where they dance to the Roxy song. Of course we have the track playing in the background to help us interpret her thoughts. It makes her think that Joe was in love with her all those years back, and ran off, leaving a taste of unrequited love in his mouth for 25 years... this breaks the dam of her emotions, and allows her to cry for the first time since the death of Boots. This was all neatly set up by her saying she couldn't cry at the cemetery.
Talking about the lyrics, I thought for 25 years that Bryan Ferry sung “Rolling potatoes by the score”… and it was some druggy joke. The original lyrics were never in the album, and it wasn’t until this film came along that I looked up the actual lyrics… “Growing potatoes by the score”. Sooo , rather like Ruth and her NME lyrics deconstruction, I got that one well wrong.
PS why does this stupid online editor always pause on cursor jumps… I have to get it to wake up by touching the scroll bar
I will confess that I also cry every time I listen to this song and watch the scene with the two of them pretending to be Roxy Music.
I was a big Roxy Music fan myself and my first GF was one too. We were obsessed with this band, especially with this song. We were dressing up like Roxy Music (and David Bowie) as much as possible.
This scene with this song brought me memories and a feeling of lost innocence. A different understanding of the lyrics as well. Too bad that I had to grow old to understand what these lyrics were really about.