Sigourney Weaver's The Girl in the Park still has fans talking about its cryptic ending almost twenty years later.
Written and directed by David Auburn, and originally released in 2007, The Girl in the Park follows a reclusive mother named Julia played by Weaver (who fans may recognize from the Avatar franchise) who is put through the wringer after a young woman (Kate Bosworth) pops up in her life years after her daughter went missing.
Since the release of the 2007 thriller, fans have theorized whether Bosworth's Louise was, in fact, Julia's long-lost daughter or was just someone trying to take advantage of her.
The Girl in the Park Ending Explained
The Girl in the Park's ending does not exactly make it clear what happened between Sigourney Weaver's Julia and Kate Bosworth's Louise (if that is even her real name).
For a refresher, Weaver's character is a former jazz musician, divorcee, and mother to two kids, and boy and a girl. However, very early on it is revealed that one day while visiting Central Park with her three-year-old daughter Maggie, the young girl goes missing.
This sends Weaver's character into a decades-long spiral where she shuts just about everyone out of her life thinking that she was responsible for Maggie's disappearance.
Things change though when a mysterious young woman (played by Bosworth) comes into Julia's life.
Through several chance encounters (sometimes years apart) Julia and Bosworth's Louise form a bit of a relationship, with Julia essentially using Louise to fill the void left behind by Maggie all those years ago.
She even goes as far as to think Louise may secretly be her long-lost daughter trying to come back into her life, having survived whatever happened at Central Park when she was a child.
This hunch causes Julia to continuously try to check for a birthmark on Louise's leg that would match one that Maggie had.
In the final moments of the movie, both Julia and the audience get the answer they have been looking for though. As comes back into Julia's life, once again, following some deception surrounding her identity and tragic backstory, Julia sneaks a look at Louise while she is using the washroom.
Peaking through the door she sees, once and for all, that Louise does not have the birthmark on her leg. While some may have expected this to be a shock to Julia, prompting another descent into depression from the mourning mother, it does not.
This revelation is the first time the viewers truly see the weight come off of Julia's shoulders. The film ends with the pair sitting down for dinner in Julia's apartment and engaging in conversation.
This ending seems to insinuate that, while Louise is not Julia's daughter, she has accepted the young woman as her surrogate daughter, filling a void that was left behind by Maggie.
The Girl in the Park is now streaming on Starz.
