The Ending (spoilers)

I'dve loved to have seen that too. I personally would've settled for a shot of them meeting up with each other in Seattle just to know that they did. I believe the filmmakers wanted people to imagine for themselves how things turned out which is why they don't show what Bart says to Uncle, although if you look closely at Uncle's face in his final shot he looks like he's been read the riot act.

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I personally would've settled for a shot of them meeting up with each other in Seattle just to know that they did.

I agree.

I think that one thing that the filmmakers might have worried about was having too much of a happy ending.

There's a lot of (not unrealistic) tragedy built into the movie: a girl with a father who is killed, a mother with some sort of addiction/mental health issue, and an abusive relative.

One thing that I appreciated about the movie was that it let the world be kind of messy. It wasn't all wrapped up a neat bow at the end. I don't think that having Bart as an ally means that all of McKenzie's problems will be solved (she is still a child with a dead father, a troubled mother, and someone who has been repeatedly sexually abused by a trusted authority figure). But I think that she needed that lifeline, and from what the movie shows it seems like we can trust that Bart will be there for her.

I would have liked to see them meet up at the end, but it might have felt a little false--like it was trying too hard to say that everything's okay. Maybe a shot of McKenzie waiting at an airport or ferry terminal for Bart to arrive--or even just a shot of her getting a text from him. As it was, I felt like the ending was generally optimistic without being too cutesy.

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