This okay but unexceptional Chicago Tribune piece about great movie endings reminds me that no matter what you may or may not think about There Will Be Blood as a whole, the ending — the final line, I mean — is almost certainly the year’s best.
The second best ending, of course, belongs to No Country for Old Men — the combination of that final line (“Then I woke up”), the cut to a silent and meditative Tess Harper across the kitchen table, and then back to Tommy Lee Jones…beat, beat, cut to black.
The year’s third-best ending — I’m not being facetious — was delivered by the Farrelly Brothers‘ The Heartbreak Kid. Ben Stiller‘s character, realizing he’s again succumbing to the old obsessive hungers and behaviors, saying “fuck me!” — and a fast cut-to-black. Perfect! Ranks with the finale of Some Like It Hot as one of the best movie-comedy endings ever. (Which obviously doesn’t imply that I’m praising the rest of the film with equal fervor.)
