The Ambiguous Ending

After seeing Inception more than once, I feel I should say something about one of my favorite things...the ambiguous ending.

The ambiguous ending is something that instantly doubles the greatness of a film to some, while frustrating others that want everything to be tied up in a nice neat package. I and definitely in the first group.

Two of my favorite films from the past decade, Pan's Labyrinth and the aforementioned Inception, both have brilliant ambiguous endings. They are in fact essentially the same ending, asking the audience whether they believe the certain things are real or mere fantasy.

Guillermo Del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth, was quoted as saying that you could tell whether someone was an optimist or a pessimist based on their interpretation of the ending. Whether or not thats exactly true, I don't know, but I do think he's hinted at the brilliance of such endings.

That brilliance lies in the fact that essentially the ambiguous ending takes the experience of the entire film, with all it's emotions, and turns to the audience asking the question: " What do you think?"

It's that question, that bringing the viewer directly into the world that gives the ambiguous ending it's power. The experience ceases to be voyeuristic, and becomes participatory. What YOU believe changes the film, and no one can factually prove you wrong. It allows you have some sort of faith in the film.

This does however bring up the question of who gets to decide what the truth of a certain film is. Del Toro has said that he has an opinion about the ending of Pan's Labyrinth, and that his opinion is true in the sense that it has some facts backing it up. But does the director's opinion trump the viewers? That's a question for another blog post...