The ending

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2003)

*** SPOILER ALERT ***
After puzzling over the ending of the film for a while, I have come up with an interpretation which makes some sense (at least to me). I think that everything that happens after the last conversation between Jimmy and Sean is not meant to be taken literally. During this conversation, Sean says something about their whole lives being a dream, ever since Dave got in the car. So I think the ending of the film has taken this idea, and is presenting a kind of dream future in which things work out the way Sean and Jimmy would like them to.
Consider what happens. Immediately after this, Sean's wife calls again and they reconcile. She turns up with a baby, and they hang out on the street like a happy family watching a parade going by. (Is this very likely? She has magically returned from Manhattan the same day, and they decide the most important thing to do is to watch a parade? Would Sean really not be dragging Jimmy down to the station for an interrogation?)
What Jimmy wants is absolution for what he has done, and this is given to him by his wife: she not only justifies the murder, but absolves him of feeling guilt for Celeste. ("What kind of wife would say that about her husband?" she says.)