How To Screw Up An Ending

With so many things in my Netflix queue stuck on 'long wait', I resorted to watching some of the lesser pushed films from the past couple of years. Last night, I watched Henry Poole Is Here.

I'm going to ruin the ending of the movie for anybody who hasn't seen it, but since this isn't a movie review (and is my blog anyways) I can do that. Anyway, sometimes the lead character HAS TO DIE and Henry Poole needed to die in order for this movie to work. By letting him live, it simply turned into a film that rested on the mechanics of the 1,643 movies like it that came before. Yes it would have been a bit sad to have killed Henry Poole, but damnit that is life. I am so tired of movies that lack any sense of realism in their endings. And yes, I realize this was a movie and not real life. Forgive me if I like my movies to be a bit grounded. If I wanted to walk away from a movie with nothing but good feelings and singing I would watch Mary Poppins. Henry Poole Is Here is one of those movies that I want to rewrite the ending for and send it to the screenwriters with a note saying 'Here. I fixed your shitty movie'.