Thoughts on the final scene

Just watched this and it broke me. Best film of the year.

My interpretation was that the entire film is about regaining dignity for both Anora and Igor – something that their clients have taken from them.

After Igor hands her the ring, she feels something for him – I believe this actually starts way back when he offers her the scarf on the boardwalk – and it terrifies her. The feelings are compounded when he carries her luggage up the stairs in the snow. She stays in the car to try to take a dig at him and rebalance things, which he sets her up for with his question, “do you like it?” – something a typical, cringey client like Ivan would ask her – but she is thrown off when he is vulnerable and reveals that it’s his grandmother’s. He was clearly making a joke about the car being so basic, and using it as a stand-in for himself, but she reverted to putting him down to distance herself from him both emotionally and hierarchically. The cold rejection, absent of the usual playfulness, genuinely hurts him, and his vulnerable response disarms her. She then decides to have sex with him to take control – given that the verbal repartee failed.

The fear of intimacy piece is obvious; he tries to kiss her, and they both clearly have nascent but genuine feelings for one another. She doesn’t want to, though, because it would be making herself vulnerable and forming an attachment with someone. The deeper piece that really struck me was how it would also be acknowledging her own position in the societal hierarchy – something she thought she was leaving behind. In that scene, she engages, and he tries to make eye contact with her. Before he tries to kiss her, she is avoiding his gaze, because it is like looking into a mirror for her; she always related more to Igor than anyone else, but wished that she didn’t. He wants to be seen just as much as she does.

The director sets up their parallel well early on. When Igor is first introduced as a character, Ivan (I think) calls Igor a “gopnik” when they first show up at the house after finding out about the marriage. Igor says, “I’m not a gopnik.” A “gopnik” is basically a low-level thug, and he doesn’t see himself that way. Similarly, Anora is called a “whore”, which she clearly does not see herself as. They both view themselves with respect and as more than the job that they do, but the people they work for do not. The final embrace between the two of them is her accepting the harsh reality of life, with all of its inequities, and surrendering to intimacy. For him, I think it is a validation of his own manhood and what he believes a man should be – strong, protective, capable, honorable, etc. – something that his employers routinely deny him and everything that Vanya is not. It’s tragic, but beautiful. They both give one another their dignity in the end.

I started bawling when he said it was his grandmother’s car. I felt for Igor as much as I did her, and it gave me some solace that they found one another. It’s a beautiful film – one of the best I’ve seen in years – and I hope it is recognized at the Oscars.

Thanks for reading. Wanted to get my thoughts out about this film before I forgot. Gonna go cry some more now.