Summary

• Henry's traumatic upbringing shapes his decisions and ability to form healthy relationships, especially with his ailing grandfather.
• Many characters in Detachment struggle with unfulfilled ambitions and making real connections, leading to frustration and emotional distress.
• Despite his difficulty in forming attachments, Henry does try to connect with others, but struggles with fear and guilt, ultimately leading to a sense of despair and loneliness.

This article contains discussions of suicide and sexual assault.

Detachment is a 2011 drama movie that questions aspects of human relationships, ambiguity, and emotional attachments, but what did the ending really mean? Directed by American History X filmmaker Tony Kaye, Detachment follows Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody), a gloomy substitute English teacher who has a one-month assignment at a high school near his home. Henry struggles with his ailing grandfather, has difficulty maintaining close relationships, and lives an aimless life. Brody has been known to give worryingly convincing performances, and he is grim and heartbreaking as Henry in Detachment.

Detachment features an ensemble cast including Lucy Liu, Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, Tim Blake Nelson, James Caan, and Bryan Cranston in the midst of his meteoric rise from Breaking Bad. Each of the characters, whether they be teachers, students, family, or strangers, affect Henry in some personal way and how he connects with these people reveals his growth throughout the film. It's a passionate and unrelenting story even if more questions are posed than answered. Some of these questions remain ambiguous, but the general meaning of the ending of Detachment can still be understood with a deeper reading.

Henry's Decisions Are Informed By His Traumatic Upbringing

In Detachment, it's quickly revealed that Henry is responsible not only for his English class but also for his aging grandfather (Louis Zorich), who is in a care facility living with dementia. Henry is constantly obliged to visit his grandfather and check in on him. Later in the film, it's revealed that he suspects his grandfather may have sexually abused his mother, who is revealed to have taken her own life when Henry was young. This creates a massive conflict within Henry, who in the film finds himself responsible for, and perhaps even emotionally attached to, a man who brutally mistreated his own mother and by extension, himself.

Suicide, sexual abuse, and one-sided relationships permeate Detachment, and Henry's reaction to these relationships and his decisions in them are certainly informed by what he has experienced prior to arriving at his substitute teaching job. Henry has carefully cultivated an unorthodox relationship with his grandfather that is both attached and detached, close and at arm's length. When others get close to Henry, he is not always sure of the appropriate way to behave. When a young student, Meredith (Betty Kaye), goes to him for comfort, he panics, associating that relationship with one he detests between his grandfather and mother.

Dr. Parker Takes Out Her Frustrations On A Student

Henry is not the only character in Detachment who can't seem to confront their feelings in a healthy manner. Dr. Doris Parker (Liu) is a school counselor who works alongside Henry. She, like many characters in the film, has her own side story operating in the background of Henry's. In one scene, Dr. Parker talks with a student named Missy (Renée Felice Smith) about her poor school performance and lack of ambition. As the scene goes on, Dr. Parker's frustration with Missy becomes a rant, and it quickly becomes clear that she is voicing her frustrations at her own decisions.

Missy sits confused with Dr. Parker, unsure of what her meeting has turned into. Unfulfilled ambitions and dreams are major themes in Detachment, and it is not solely an issue for Henry. Most of the other characters are struggling to make some real connection or understand their pain and regret, including Dr. Parker.

Henry Could Not Have Saved Meredith

One of Henry's few emotional relationships in Detachment is with one of his students, Meredith. During his time teaching, Henry begins to suspect Meredith is having thoughts of suicide, as he knows the signs due to his mother's struggle. However, Henry does not reach out to Meredith until she opens up to him. Their brief moment of honesty is interrupted and Henry retreats, fearful that he is exhibiting some of the same predatory behaviors he believes his grandfather is guilty of. When Meredith takes her own life the next day, it could be inferred that Henry's inability to connect with Meredith was part of her reasoning.

However, that is not true. Like with his mother, Henry is not responsible for the deaths of those close to him. In fact, he did the best he could. The day after he panics with Meredith, he seeks her out, trying to discuss what happened to him the previous day. Unfortunately, his words don't have much effect, and she still decides to end her life. Despite his difficulty in making attachments, Henry did try to connect with her though, and that's significant.

Sarah Has An Unhealthy Attachment To Henry

Another character dealing with similar attachment difficulties is Sarah Madison (Christina Hendricks), a teacher at Henry's high school. Sarah clearly has feelings for Henry, but not ones she is able to articulate to him, never mind that Henry is only somewhat able to handle these feelings. When Sarah sees Henry embracing Meredith to comfort her in a normal paternal way, she immediately accuses him of behaving inappropriately, which sends Henry into a panic. Sarah's inability to make a healthy connection with Henry or understand a healthy relationship when she sees it points to her own issues with attachment.

Why Henry Reads The Fall Of The House Of Usher On His Last Day

The Fall of the House of Usher is a famed short story from Edgar Allen Po,e and Henry reads it to his class at the end of Detachment. This scene serves to connect the gothic novel to the themes and events of the movie. The Fall of the House of Usher's themes include psychological distress, isolation, and decay, all significant in Detachment too. Poe's story mirrors Henry's recent life. He has lost his grandfather, his relationship with Sarah has ended, and one of his students has passed away. His life is crumbling down around him, and his loneliness is overwhelming. However, Detachment offers just a slightly more hopeful ending.

The song "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday is sung by a young girl at the very end of the film. The haunting melody is made even more depressing with scenes of a decrepit and abandoned school building, another reference to The Fall of the House of Usher. "Strange Fruit" is an emotional song that is tonally in line with the film. The lyrics regarding the barbarity of lynchings in America may not line up exactly with the movie's story, but they still provide a bleak and haunting ending to a difficult story.

The Real Meaning Of Detachment's Ending

The ending of Detachment is intentionally left ambiguous and the scene of the empty school building Henry walks through adds another layer of mystery to the film. Whether this is a vision, symbolism, or a premonition of the future, is never clearly explained. What can be determined is that the loneliness and psychological distress Henry has experienced over the course of the last month, and even earlier, has sent him to a mental place that resembles the neglected school building. Henry's inability to make attachments or overcome his own loneliness has pushed him close to a place of despair.

However, Detachment does offer one small ray of hope. After Henry kicks Erica (Sami Gayle), a student, out of his house and onto the streets, he goes to visit her in foster care and the pair warmly embrace. Despite his hostility, Erica forgives him and the two reunite. This could be looked at as a sign Henry's story is not over and despite the overwhelming listlessness and solitude he feels in the end, there may still be chances for attachment in the future. Detachment does not have a happy ending, but there is still the idea that something more than grief can come from Henry's trials.