10 Recent Movies So Good You Overlook Huge Flaws
6. All Of Us Strangers - The Awful Final Twist
This one is a classic case of great movie, garbage ending.
For most of its runtime, All of Us Strangers is a beautiful ghost story in which lonely screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) spends time with the ghosts of his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) who died in a car crash when he was a child. In the meantime, he begins a relationship with Harry (Paul Mescal), who lives in his apartment block too.
It's visually stunning, consummately acted, and almost unbearably emotional stuff that will make many people cry. It's just a real shame All of Us Strangers didn't stick the landing. After a heartfelt goodbye with his parents, Adam returns home and it's revealed that Harry is also a ghost who died near the beginning of the film.
Having Harry be a ghost as well as the parents was just too much, and in what was already such a sad film, poor Harry dying felt like a step too far into full-blown misery. This twist only comes in the last few minutes, and so it doesn't ruin the movie, but it makes it harder to rewatch. The thought of watching Adam and Harry together while knowing that Adam's getting it on with a ghost isn't terribly appealing.