Welcome to the Ending, Explained for Loving Adults, a new Danish thriller that has found its way to Netflix this weekend. The film is a classic thriller filled with tons of twists and turns. The movie tells the story of Christian, a man who has found the woman of his life. However, there is a problem, he is already married and has a teenage son. When his wife, Leonora, discovers that he is being unfaithful, things take a wicked turn into the darkest of places.
Loving Adults is a very well-constructed thriller that puts our main character, Christian, in the worst of situations. Christian isn’t charismatic or even likable, so it is quite conflicting to root for or be against what happens to him in this movie. The movie has some pacing issues with a bit too many running in circles moments, but the climax helps to bring everything down at the end. Even if the ending is a bit ambiguous, the events of the film will surely endure in your mind after watching it.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Loving Adults. Read at your own risk.
What Does Christian Do To Get Out Of His Marriage With Leonora?
Loving Adults tells the story of Christian. He is our main character. However, the story begins in another place. We see a detective talking to a young woman about a case that has been making him crazy because he could never have figured out what really happened. The case was about the death of a woman. The detective begins his tale, with Christian as the protagonist. In a tale where he says, he thinks Christian was ready to kill her wife.
We are then introduced to Christian, a successful architect, and to Leonora, his wife, a housewife. Leonora was a musician, but after getting pregnant she stayed home to care for her son, who was also born sick. She has been taking care of him for a long time, and she thinks she has missed tons of opportunities in life. Christian doesn’t love Leonora anymore, he has found a new love, a younger woman named Xenia. He says he loves her, but Xenia wants to be the only one. He needs to tell Leonora about it.
Leonora is already suspicious, and when the both of them go to a work party for Christian, Leonora discovers he and Xenia having sex. Leonora confronts Christian and he doesn’t deny it. However, Leonora is not ready to lose her husband. She knows Christian has been taking funds from his company and that she could go to the police and have him arrested for the scam. Christian gets afraid, but he cannot leave Xenia, he loves her too much.
In desperation, Christian makes a plan. She knows Leonora runs at night, so he grabs a van from the construction company he works for. He takes the van to her running route, where he runs over her with the van twice until he makes sure she is dead. However, when Christian arrives home, he finds that Leonora is alive. She has a different running route now, which means she killed another woman by accident. Christian’s world begins to fall apart.
What Does Leonara Do To Christian?
Leonora finds out that Christian tried to kill her. The police, of course, begin to look for the murderer of the woman. Christian is afraid that he will go to jail. For a time, he stays at home and ignores Xenia’s phone calls. Leonora has him in her hands. However, when it becomes clear that Christian cannot forget Xenia, Leonora goes out, saying she will go to the police and give them all the evidence against Christian.
However, that moment never comes. Leonora asks Christian to meet her at a restaurant. There she lays out her plan to make things right for her and for Christian. She proposes killing Xenia. If they do, it will be their secret, and they won’t turn on each other. They are both going to be happy, and they can return to being the couple they were before this whole mess. Christian is shocked by the outrageous proposal, but Leonora is serious about it.
Christian accepts the terms of the agreement. He goes to Xenia, and they spend the night together while Leonora stays at a hotel to make it seem as if he was there with Christian. So no one would ever suspect they were the murderers. Leonora then goes to Christian and she kills Xenia. Christian cries as he sees the love of his life fading away. Leonora smiles, knowing she has won her man back, and no one will suspect a thing.
The detective then asks where was the body at. Apparently, it was never found. Throughout the movie, we see Christian building a fireplace on a lake. This is part of a summer Danish tradition. It is revealed that Xenia’s body is inside the fireplace, and when it burns, it burns all the evidence with it. The police never found the body or the bones, but the movie ends with a shot underwater where we can see Xenia’s bones all piled together in her final resting place.
