‘Tis the season\u2026 for murder! <\/p>
Twelve months is a long time to wait for <\/span>Christmas<\/span><\/a>, but now, thanks to <\/span>Netflix<\/span><\/a>, a new festive offering from India has arrived to keep us going. Merry Christmas isn\u2019t just your typical Netflix holiday film either, despite that deceptively joyous title.<\/span><\/p>\n No, director Sriram Raghavan\u2019s new Hindi-Tamil effort is actually a suspense thriller that reworks noir elements into the Christmas season. Because why not? It\u2019s a bold choice, but clearly a good one, because Merry Christmas arrived to great acclaim in its home country this January \u2014 also not an ideal release window \u2014 and now international subscribers get to see what all the fuss is about too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Based on Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Dard\u2019s French novel Le Monte-charge (Bird in a Cage), this slow-burn, Hitchcock-style mystery starts with a chance meeting between a man and a woman (as Hitchcock-style films often do). What begins as a sneaky yet serendipitous romance between Albert (Vijay Sethupathi) and a married woman named Maria (Katrina Kaif) grows complicated when the pair get closer, only to visit Maria\u2019s apartment one night and discover her husband Jerome is dead inside. <\/span><\/p>\n Albert is an ex-convict who\u2019s only just been released after serving time for killing his wife, but he\u2019s not the only suspect surrounding Jerome\u2019s apparent suicide.<\/span><\/p>\n Oh, and this all kicked off on Christmas Eve, in case you\u2019re wondering why the film is called Merry Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n Twists and turns abound throughout until the third act \u2013 if you need a recap of those events read on to have the Merry Christmas ending explained with the warning that here are major spoilers<\/strong> from here on out.<\/span><\/p> In the film\u2019s final act, Albert finds out that Maria had secretly constructed a replica version of her apartment that looks the exact same as the one Jerome died in. He\u2019s suspicious then, and rightly so, because Maria goes on to reveal that her husband didn\u2019t die by suicide, after all. Jerome was in fact murdered by her.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Maria drugged Jerome\u2019s drink and then used the connecting apartments, the real one and the replica one, to run off and kill her husband quickly with no one being any the wiser. The plan was to use Albert as an alibi so her whereabouts would be accounted for around the time of Jerome\u2019s so-called suicide<\/span><\/p>\n Albert is into Maria, so instead of turning her in as he should, the pair then scheme up a way to get Maria off the hook completely so they can run off and enjoy their happy ending together. The new plan is to destroy the replica apartment and all the evidence, including a wallet owned by Ronnie, Maria\u2019s neighbour, before heading off into the sunset. More on that wallet shortly. But when Albert\u2019s name comes up during the investigation, the police begin to suspect his involvement. With that past incarceration to consider, the cops are quick to bring him in for questioning to discuss the circumstances around Jerome\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ronnie previously mentioned to the police that his wallet went missing around the same time Jerome died, which led them to wonder if perhaps a thief had broken into the building who stole the wallet and also killed Maria\u2019s husband at the same time. The police become pretty keen to find the wallet then, which just so happens to be with Albert when they bring him into the station. He was on the way to hiding it in a\u00a0 \u2018Lost & Found\u2019 box, but the cops found Albert instead before he could make it there and get rid of the evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n Knowing that Maria was the one who really killed Jerome, Albert decides to sacrifice himself for love, claiming that he was the murderer, not her, so she could escape justice and get away scot-free. That\u2019s when Albert shows everyone in the room Ronnie\u2019s wallet, thereby proving his guilt in the eyes of the law. As if that wasn\u2019t dramatic enough, Albert gives Maria his beloved ring as a declaration of his undying love for her before returning back to the prison which he left at the very start of the film.<\/span><\/p>\n With the movie coming to an end, it\u2019s safe to assume that Albert\u2019s plan has worked and Maria is free to raise Annie, her daughter, the right way. Whether their relationship will continue while he\u2019s behind bars remains unclear, plus the real killer is now loose, which makes this whole affair pretty downbeat compared to your standard Netflix Christmas flick. But in March, we\u2019ll take any festive fare we can get our hands on at this point. \u2018<\/span><\/p>\n Tis the season whenever you want it to be, the facts be damned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMerry Christmas ending explained: How did Jerome die?<\/strong><\/h2>\n