This article contains major spoilers for Into the Wind’s ending.
Kristoffer Rus’s feature debut Into the Wind is the kind of young-adult romance that seems to have been written by throwing darts at a board full of cookie-cutter plot elements and character backstories, making it a predictable endeavor, to put things mildly. But it’s also a film with some things on its mind, including a tokenistic depiction of mental health struggles, so it’s worth going over its story and outcome to get a better sense of what the whole thing was really about (and whether it was more than just two very good-looking people hooking up on the beach.)
Ania, the lead, lost her mother five years prior and became severely withdrawn and depressed. Now, having healed from this trauma somewhat, she’s due to be engaged in a rather forceful way to Kuba, a similarly-aged but charmless dude who is the son of a couple that Ania’s father Andre and his new missus Patrycja are tight with. Of course, shortly after arriving at the Mistral Hotel and Spa where the conditions of this engagement are to be finalized while everyone brags about their children’s respective accomplishments, Ania meets and falls deeply for Michal, a shaggy kite-surfing instructor who also waits tables at the hotel.
It’s an age-old setup, the highly-strung privileged girl falling for the rough-around-the-edges local boy, and Into the Wind never really advances beyond it. Much of the film is dedicated to Ania and Michal wooing one another, first gradually, and then rather rapidly, with only a minor setback in the middle when Ania believes Michal is sleeping with his friend Sasza (he isn’t.) After sleeping together on the beach, Ania begins to learn how to loosen up and enjoy life again, which encourages her to politely tell her father to mind his business sometimes and also to call off the engagement with Kuba, which she never wanted in the first place.
Into the Wind’s ending
One of the main threats to Ania and Michal’s relationship is a freak accident that occurs during a kite-surfing competition and almost feels like it’s transplanted from a different film. While it seems for a moment that Michal might be dead, he pulls through just fine, and he immediately gets back to partying with his friends and Ania, having seemingly been accepted by Andre also.
This suggests a nice future for the central couple, though it’s hard to imagine Ania’s impending departure for London won’t throw a spanner in the works. But Into the Wind isn’t the kind of film that ends on a downbeat note, so the matter is left mostly unaddressed, with every relationship repaired, and love in the air. Hopefully it lasts, if only so we don’t have to watch a sequel.
You can stream Into the Wind exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on Into the Wind’s ending? Let us know in the comments.
