10 Movies With Annoyingly Abrupt Endings

4. The Crossroads - Broken Flowers

Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers stars Bill Murray as a very Bill Murray-type character named Don Jon who one day receives a letter from an anonymous ex-girlfriend claiming he has a nineteen-year-old son he's never met. And so begins a cross country round trip, as Don visits a selection of his old girlfriends in an attempt to find out who the mother is.

As such, Broken Flowers is a film that essentially exists as a series of vignettes: Murray's character tracks down an old flame, awkward stuff happens, and he moves on to the next one in service of his mission. So far, so good.

At the end of the film, Don meets a young man who he randomly believes to be his son. When he raises the subject, though, the guy runs away, leaving Don to pursue - which he does, to - of all places - a crossroads. As Don looks about confused, a car drives by with another young man in it. And then Broken Flowers ends. On that note. Just like that.

We never find out who sent the letter or who the son is; the film just finishes at a point where it genuinely feels as though there's at least 40 minutes to go. Clearly Jarmusch was going for something here, but it doesn't pay off. It's just an annoying note to end on.