How Anora's Ending Surprisingly Subverts Classic Fairy Tales

The winner of the 2024 Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Anora, has finally arrived in theaters. Directed by Sean Baker, Anora tells the story of Anora/Ani (Mikey Madison), a stripper working in a New York City nightclub. Due to being able to converse in Russian, her bosses introduce her to a client, Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein), the son of Russian oligarchs with implied criminal ties. After Vanya hires Ani to be his girlfriend for the weekend, the two get caught up in a romance and get married. However, when Vanya's parents discover this, they send enforcers to annul the marriage, so Vanya runs off and leaves Ani and a group of enforcers on a wild goose chase through the night to find him.

While Anora is certainly funnier than audiences might expect, its ending scene is an emotional gut punch that puts the entire movie into a new context. Part of what makes the movie so great is that the ending is open for interpretation. MovieWeb's Britt Hayes might have put it best in her 10/10 review of Anora regarding the ending: "This is when Anora delivers on all that pent-up empathy, with a moment of startling intimacy in which Ani finally removes her brassy armor. Catharsis is inherently hard-earned and rooted in heartbreak, but Baker shows us that there's something preternaturally hopeful about it too, a feeling that lingers pleasantly as the credits quietly roll."

What Exactly Happens

Throughout most of Anora's second act, Ani is held captive and forced to work with three men that Vayna's father sent to ensure the marriage gets annulled. There is Toros (Karren Karagulian), the man in charge, and also his two henchmen, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov). The group eventually finds Vanya at the same strip club where he initially met Ani. The henchmen manage to get Ani and Vanya to a courthouse to get the marriage annulled, but they discover that since they were wed in Vegas, they can't get it annulled in New York and need to fly to Nevada.

Vanya's parents, Nikolai Zakharov (Aleksei Serebryakov) and his wife Galina (Darya Ekamasova), arrive and force everyone to get on the plane. While Ani has spent most of the movie saying Vayna will fight for their love, he quickly gives in to his mother's demand and does not fight to get the marriage annulled, breaking Ani's heart. Vayna tells her it was never going to work, implying that it was just another case of him not thinking his actions through.

Ani initially tries to fight getting on the plane, saying she will get a divorce and take Vanya for half of his money. However, Galina threatens her, telling her if they take this to court, they will take everything from Ani and her family. Ani reluctantly agrees to go and is forced to sign the annulment papers, but not before telling Vayna and his family off.

Igor is sent to accompany Ani back to New York, with one final night in Vanya's lavish house. Ani begins hating Igor, as he is forced to tie her up so she won't escape. Igor was the only one who spoke up for her, saying that Vanya should have apologized to her. The next day, he takes Ani to pay her for the annulment, and when he goes to drop her off at her home, he hands her the four-carrot diamond wedding ring that Vanya had bought and Tores forcibly removed from her. Ani then decides to have sex with Igor in his car, but when he tries to kiss her, she backs away and begins to cry on top of him. This is the only time Ani cries in the movie.

Opening Up to Someone

The ending of Anora has left many viewers unsure about how to feel, as it is purposely ambiguous. The biggest question appears to be why Ani chose to have sex with Igor. It is shocking at first, considering that most of the movie features her criticizing him, belittling him, and also genuinely not trusting him. Even the movie frames Igor and Anora's initial interactions as slightly uncomfortable as he is a strange man left alone with her when she is partially dressed. The movie walks a fine line when Igor is forced to restrain her from leaving so that it doesn't become too graphic and uncomfortable, though Ani quickly points out how creepy it is.

Yet, throughout the movie, Igor is the only one who shows Ani any respect and cares about her well-being. From giving her the scarf, apologizing to her repeatedly, and even giving her the ring that she fought so hard for, Igor shows through his actions that he cares for Ani's well-being. Ani's response to having sex with him can be read in several ways. Since her job is all based on transactional favors, she has become accustomed to the idea that when someone gives her something of value, it is in exchange for sex.

Her having sex with Igor could be done because she can't fathom a man doing something nice for her without something expected in return. Particularly after everything that happened with Vanya, she can't accept that someone would do something nice for her. Igor must go after sex, so the act should complete the transaction. Yet Igor's attempt to kiss Ani rocks her belief, and she realizes that this is something more real for him. She wasn't expecting this, which overwhelms her emotionally.

For most of the film, Ani and Vanya's relationship is depicted in graphic sex scenes, and they rarely kiss. The sex act between Ani and Igor is different. In contrast to the film's earlier nudity, this scene has both Anora and Igor fully clothed. It's intimate but not romantic as they are crammed in a car; it is cold as opposed to the warm glow in the film's earlier sex scenes, and notably, it is brief and fleeting. Igor ending their sexual encounter with a kiss is very personal, one that Ani can't accept at that moment.

This sex not only doesn't fix the pain that Ani feels, but it also makes her feel worse, because how could Igor, someone she barely knows, show her such kindness when the man who supposedly loved her tossed her aside so easily? Ani doesn't feel good enough, even though she is. Igor's kiss might shatter that belief, and after believing one isn't good enough for so long, that worldview change can be emotionally devastating for some people. Yet now, she might be able to move forward and accept the love and respect she deserves.

A Different Type of Fairy Tale Ending

Early in the film, Ani refers to her getting engaged to Vanya as being like a fairy tale, even name-dropping Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. Anora is a very 21st-century reimaging of a classic romantic comedy setup, one with a stronger emphasis on drama, sex, and class consciousness. Ani could be seen as Cinderella, a working-class woman who is seemingly picked out of a crowd by a rich Prince Charming and whisked away. However, instead of happily ever after, Anora shows the fairy tale coming to a sad, bitter end.

Instead of Prince Charming, Vanya is a spoiled, selfish, and cowardly young man who doesn't consider other people's feelings. While he claims to love Ani in the beginning, the film's ending shows that he only loves what she represents to him, and in the end, he doesn't fight for her. Ani was the one fighting for him in the end, and it amounted to nothing but heartbreak for her.

Anora also feels like a loose reimaging of Pretty Woman. Like Pretty Woman, Anora also centers on a sex worker who is hired by a wealthy man to serve as his date, and the two develop romantic feelings for one another. Yet Anora subverts the Pretty Woman ending. In contrast to Pretty Woman's ending, which sees Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) racing to confess his feelings for Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), Anora offers something bleaker and more real. Anora's ending shows that, despite all the claims of love by Vayna, he let her go so easily because he loved the lifestyle that his wealthy parents gave him more. He didn't give up money for the girl because that had more value for him than she did.

Anora's ending is shocking because this isn't how these types of stories should go. Love is supposed to triumph. She is not supposed to end up back where she started. Ani is crying for everything she lost. She lost a love she thought was real, and it can't just be replaced. Ani lost the future she thought she had secured, one of financial stability, and now is forced into a life she felt she had escaped. Ani lost in Vanya's choice between her or his parents; she lost in attempting to stand up to Vanya's family to get half of the money in a divorce, but more importantly, she lost because she was the one who got heartbroken.

At the beginning of the film, when Vanya and Ani meet, she keeps him emotionally distant, treating him no differently than any other customer. He pursues her and eventually gets Ani to let her guard down, which leads to her falling for him. Yet she fell harder for him. She lost, and after that many defeats, it's hard not to let out a cry.