'The Father Who Moves Mountains' Ending Explained: What's left for Mircea?
Contains spoilers for Netflix's 'The Father Who Moves Mountains
Mircea, the main protagonist in the movie, leaves a lot of uanswered questions and 'what-could-have-been's by the time the film ends. Netflix's new action thriller takes its own, sweet time to gather momentum (a little past the first half), builds up gradually, only to end with a cliffhanger of sorts.
When Mircea, an ex-Intelligence Officer, comes to know that his son has gone missing, nothing, not even high, snow-capped mountains can stop him from doing everything a parent would do to rescue their child. He breaks the law, defies protocol, gets in to verbal fights with both his ex and current wife and, he does this all in the hopes of reuniting with his teenage son, Cosmin.
The movie as a whole is quite slow-paced but leaves the audience filled with a sense of Mircea's unwavering hope, right from the very beginning. Through the hike with Mircea, we find ourselves hoping and rooting for Cosmin to finally spot his father and run towards him, as they share a loving embrace. However, life isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Time and again, we're left yearning for that reunion, only for our guts to drop in disappointment, failed rescue missions and operations, verbal tiffs, possible frostbites from shoveling, and, sighs of disappointment.
Torn between guilt, grief, regret and repentance, Mircea trailes through knee-deep snow for days together, never losing belief or hope. He is so focused on finding Cosmin that he neglects his very pregnant wife, Alina, takes blame for having divorced Paula (his ex-wife) and, begins to question both his personal and professional life choices. In certain scenes, he is racked by the pangs of an existential crisis as well. Mircea is so blinded at this point, that this very behaviour of his turns to selfishness; he rejects the idea of helping another family whose daughter went missing in the very same mountains.
All of this and more, all in vain! The end shows a strong-minded Mircea, shoveling heaps of snow without taking a break. He urges his friends to carry on and take on another rescue mission, reassuring that a life can be saved if action is taken on time. A sense of overwhelming relief washes over Mircea as he hears about the mission's success and with that in mind and heart, he continues to shovel.
'The Father Who Moved Mountains' is currently streaming on Netflix.