Book and Movie - the endings

In the last week I finished reading Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, and saw the movie Its Complicated with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. In both I was disappointed with both the endings.
Lets take the book, Her Fearful Symmetry. My friend Carol brought it too me and said "Read this and tell me what you think". Well first of all as I began to read the book I was thrilled with the writing of Audrey Niffenegger, her ability to make pictures, take a simple scene and fill it full of smells, tastes and color. Wow, as I read on, I thought Carol wanted me to read it because it was about a ghost, and I found myself becoming more and more involved with the story and characters. They seem to jump of the page at me. In fact I began to read a bit, get up and do something, then go back and read more. Then near the end, everything fell apart. At least for me. I guess I like conclusions when I read something, I ended up feeling left up in the air. All these characters without any conclusion. Did Audrey Niffenegger feel like I and other readers needed to make our own endings, or did she feel she had written enough and just left it. I was disappointed with the ending. The reading in the middle was great. What a bizsarre concept to write a story about. I can only imagine a mind who comes up with a story line like that. During supper before going to the movie Its Complicated we talked about the book and came to the same conclusion. The ending sucked!
Then as we left the movie we talked about how the ending seemed flat. How the on screen connection between Meryl Sreep and Alec Baldwin was obvious, yet there did not seem to be any with Steve Martin (oh yes, has he had a face lift?) and this prompted us to have a further discussion around endings. I must say though we both laughed a lot during the movie, mostly at Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep (a true genius of non verbal words with her face and body) - not at Steve Martin.
We talked about were we, as women in our 60's wanting the 'happily ever after' ending. Was the world becoming more cynical in its approach of endings and for me, in particular, are directors not getting the not on screen connection between stars.
In this I'm still upset that Tom Hanks and his female star in Angels and Demons who had no chemistry at all, and that director Ron Howard (or whoever hired her) did not see that. What is wrong that people that they don't see that the chemistry must be there for us (the audience) to believe it.
Anyway, for frustrating endings, read Her Fearful Symmetry or go see Its Complicated. I'm sure you'll see what I mean. Great middle, horrible ending.

Norma Cowie
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Email: norma@normacowie.com