Our Mother's House : Question about the ending [spoilers]

Question about the ending [spoilers]

I saw this on TCM last night and loved it. The last 5 minutes were terrific but I'd like others opinions about a couple of things.

1. When Charlie finally shows his true colors, he says that the sainted mother was a "tart", that she slept with a bunch of men before her religious conversion and that he's not the father of any of them. How true do you think that both claims are?

I can see the children having different fathers as they don't look very similar (tall blonde Hubert, curly-haired Jiminee, sharp profiled Duncan etc.) Sure, in movies children especially are cast because they can act, not because they're carbon-copies of the people playing their parents, but still. BTW, all the child actors are fantastic in this, great job by all of them.

2. After Charlie is killed, they decide not to bury him. They walk out of the house but I was unclear on whether they were going to turn themselves in to the police or head off somewhere, an orphanage perhaps? Did I miss some dialogue?

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

1. I think that's always going to be ambiguous, and perhaps this is a way of making us see things from a child's point of view. Like the children, we only know what the adults tell us, and the majority of their lives are closed to us. Here we hear Charlie's version of his life with their mother, and he's not exactly giving a dispassionate account. His own emotions are in play, and he's got a strong motive to paint himself as the innocent party. The only chance we get to hear Mother's side of the story is in that one line from her will, where she says that he broke her heart. This isn't much evidence to go on, but as adults, we naturally suspect that there's more to it than this.

It looks as though Mother was a clergyman's daughter, so she grew up with a religious background. Charlie claims that once she tried sex, she became insatiable and slept with every man she could find. This raises the question, though: Why did he marry her? She was a religious girl to begin with; when Diana is reading from the Song of Songs, he says "I haven't heard that for years!" So he must have heard it when they were married, because she didn't become a religious maniac until her life collapsed and she returned to the faith she'd rejected after her marriage. We only have Charlie's word for it that she was an uncontrollable nymphomaniac. He, on the other hand, demonstrates that he's quite a ladies' man, as well as a cheat and a liar. Maybe she turned to other men as a result of his womanizing. We'll never know. He does let slip, though, that when she was sleeping around, he was the one who suffered, so it seems clear that there really was love between them at one time.

I don't know if it's true, either, that NONE of the children are his. Possibly Elsa might be his daughter, born before all the troubles that came later in their marriage. You're right that they all look quite different, and probably have different fathers. I'm pretty sure that Diana isn't his daughter. He's a bum, but I don't think he's a creep. He finds her attractive, just like her mother, and I don't think he'd feel that way if she were his own daughter. It's that elusive "code" he tells Dunstan about, no matter how confused and incoherent. A man just doesn't do that sort of thing.

2. We don't know just where they're going at the end. Some think they're going to the police, others that they're just wandering away with no destination in view. It's just my own opinion, but I think they're going to go to the doctor at the end of the street and tell him what's happened. He's a sort of authority figure in their world, even though we never see him. (I wonder why they wouldn't go and tell the nice man who lives next door what happened?)

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

Thanks for the reply, it was very helpful.

I never thought that they were going to the doctor at the end of the street, I completely forgot about the doctor.

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

I'm trying not to read too much into the movie, but have always felt that yes, the children are all the result of Charlie's infrequent visits. The mother was obviously madly in love with the ne'er-do-well and believed he was back for good and that he loved her...every time. It sounds outrageous, but I do know of more than one couple where this was the case (though not eight times!!!) That line in her will about him supports this, I think. I don't see evidence of her being a "tart" just because Charlie says so....well, would YOU believe anything he told you? I felt he was just painting a picture of himself as the victim, but that he was never the victim. Look at his explanation about investing (not just spending) the savings money and that ridiculous story about how he wasn't really selling the house.

I appreciate the ambiguity of the ending. I agree that the children were headed for the doctor's house to confess all. The movie was so realistic that I had a sudden urge to go online and find out the outcome of the case in the British legal system under "old crimes." Well-spun, heart-tugging, and down right haunting.

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

I think the money issue actually makes Charlie LESS of a villain. I really think that he DID justify taking the money by telling himself he was going to invest it. But the tragic thing is that people really just don't change. Charlie walks into this situation where Mother's dead and these kids are alone and need to be taken care of. He knows that looking after them is the decent thing to do, but what does he do? He doesnt' say to himself, "Gee, all these kids are counting on me, I've got to get a job!" He does what he's ALWAYS done: looks for the easy solution.

There's that nest egg there, and he figures if he "invests" it by betting on the horses and wins big, they'll be on easy street. There will be lots of money, and he can buy the kids whatever they need, and everyone will be happy. Of course, he loses the money, and then he gets nasty because he feels guilty. The money's gone, and now everything's worse than it was before. This is the sort of behaviour that broke up his marriage, and no wonder. He's a bum. He can't really be a father because he's weak, selfish and impulsive, but he still has enough character to realize that he's failed and to feel bad about it.

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

Just watched this film off my DVR this morning. As the children are walking away from the house down the street in the dark one of them says to the effect "are we going to tell the doctor about mother, too"? - or something like that. So, it would seem they are going to the doctor's house.

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

You're right. And she adds, "You mean it's not a secret anymore? I can tell Miss Bailey?" (the teacher). So it is the doctor's house they're going to. They're going to tell him about Charlie, and Mother too.

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

Thanks, Rosabel. I couldn't quite make out that very last bit even though I went over it a cuple times.

Re: Question about the ending [spoilers]

This is where closed captioning comes in handy. I use it because I am hard of hearing, but I never miss anything important. Of course, a lot of people don't like CC running across the bottom (or elsewhere).
Top