SPOILERS - Clarification of a few things

Rating: Null/10 (28 October 2003)

Hope this helps to some of you who are confused about the ending. Although this screenplay was pretty close to the novel, some major points were left out. And I emphasize MAJOR! In the book Dave is tormented with the fact that he has improper inclinations and thoughts about young boys, but has never acted on this. He does have a split personality, reference to "the Boy", but in my opinion the movie does not make this clear like the book does. When Jimmy is pointing the gun at Dave at the end and asking him if he killed his daughter and why he had the blood, etc. Dave tries to explain about the man and young boy,which does not make sense to Jimmy. Dave cannot bring himself to tell Jimmy why he killed that man. He cannot bring himself to tell Jimmy that he has these thoughts about young boys, therefore he would rather admit to a murder he didn't commit than admit to his feelings about young boys. Dave's character is developed beautifully in the book...you can actually feel his pain and anguish. It is truly heartbreaking to read it.
As far as the parade scene goes, I think that Sean fully intends to go after Jimmy, that is why the trigger finger. In the book Celeste goes up to Sean and says, "You know that Jimmy killed my husband", and Sean replies that he does and if it takes him the rest of his life he will try to prove it... or something on those lines. Why they left out this important information in the movie is beyond me. In my opinion those 2 lines were very important. Annabeth's speech and the way she looked at Celeste at the parade scene were not part of the way the book ended. Hope this helps!