15 Greatest Movie Endings Of The Decade

9. Carol (2015)

Forbidden love has been a big part of this rundown and will continue to be beyond this point too, because it's one of Hollywood's most rewarding hot-button dramatic constructs. If you add LGBTQ love into the mix, too, it carries another edge entirely.

Carol is another intoxicating, woozy love-story set against a period backdrop that simply wouldn't tolerate its central love between the titular Carol and Therese. Naturally, because of where it's set, we know it's not going to end well, even as we fall into its portrait of self-discovery and emotional and intimate expression and that's how it seems to be heading - towards painful, hollow conformity.

And then, right at the end, even as Therese has turned Carol's invitation to live together down - and seemingly signalled her intent to try and do what is expected of her - she goes to The Oak Room, sees her love and she flashes an enigmatic, warm smile that says everything about the hope of love that springs from it.