'Blackbird' Ending Explained: Did Lily's death and confronting the past help [spoiler] get a closure?
‘Blackbird’ is a drama film built around a terminally ill mother Lily and her extended family, who have come to spend the last few days with her before she ends her own life. She has the support of her doctor husband Paul, who has come to terms with his wife’s decision.
Lily (Susan Sarandon) invites her two daughters — Jennifer (Kate Winslet) and Anna (Mia Wasikowska) — home, along with her best friend Liz (Bex Taylor-Klaus) to spend a few days in their company ahead of the weekend which will mark her end. It doesn’t take long to learn about her elder daughter Jennifer’s controlling behavior as she seems to have an issue with nearly everything in her presence. She’s somebody who couldn’t go without knowing what’s happening in someone else’s life and her husband Michael, surprisingly plays along, perhaps to ensure nothing triggers her already obsessive nature.
Even though Jennifer shares a closer relationship with her mother, it feels like she’s distant. They never indulge in intense conversations or spend a wholesome mother-daughter moment together. Jennifer has accepted her mother’s decision, but she still isn’t sure of her choice.
Meanwhile, her younger daughter Anna brings her girlfriend Chris to her parents’, which isn’t acceptable by Jennifer. But as the movie progresses you can’t help but notice pain in Anna’s eyes. She’s often seen isolating herself from the rest of the family and throwing temper tantrums at her girlfriend, who by the way, comes across as the only person who can understand Anna’s complex nature.
While Anna is evidently not fine with the thought of her mother taking her own life, she has no strength in her to confront her own parent owing to her issues, which only Jennifer is aware of. But Jennifer feels it’s up to Anna to make sure nothing “bothers” their mother before her death, even if it means for Anna not to talk about that one month when everybody thought she was surviving of mushrooms in a forest trip when she was actually under psychiatric care getting treated for bipolar disorder after a terrible episode which almost killed her.
During the re-created Christmas party, when Lily expresses proudly how she brought her daughters up to be strong, Anna breaks down and reveals that she had been hospitalized for her mental health issues, criticizing her mother for barely knowing her daughters. This doesn’t sit well with Jennifer for obvious reasons, but Lily is deeply affected by her daughter’s opinion about her parenting.
However, Lily is determined to do what she intended to do from the start, despite Anna's disapproval. Anna even considers calling 911 and reporting a suicide attempt to thwart her mother’s plan but stops when confronted by Jennifer. A broken and vulnerable Anna finally opens up to her mother about her mental issues and the two talk it out before Lily’s final day.
Although Anna keeps no secret and lets her mother know everything about her life before she takes her last breath, she seems to be carrying an onus for years, owing to her mental issues which have deeply affected her overall being. Even before she learned about her mother’s euthanasia, she and Chris were in an on-again off-again relationship, which explains her instability.
Lily’s death may not have necessarily brought Jennifer and Anna closer, but it definitely helped the duo achieve more clarity about each other’s life. But, does that mean Anna got a closure? Or, will her mother’s demise end up affecting her in unimaginable ways since she was against it?
‘Blackbird’ premieres on September 18 in the US.