'Memoir Of A Snail' Movie Ending Explained & Recap: How Did Grace Motivate Herself?

With all its drudgeries, miseries, and heartbreaks, life messes up every one of us—there are no shortcuts to a happier existence or ways around the tribulations we must face. The only thing that is truly in our control is to never let the past define us, find something that is worth it to move on to without getting stuck on what we had hoped to change but couldn’t. Renowned Australian claymation director Adam Elliot’s clayographical (a term coined by Adam that combines claymation and biography) work, Memoir of a Snail, based on his personal experience, expands upon this simple yet profound realization through a beautiful, poignant, inspiring account of a lonely soul, Grace Pudel. Without resorting to sentimentality, Memoir of a Snail charts Grace’s journey of growth, crafted with the organic, innovative, bleak yet beautiful art style of Adam Elliot, which celebrates the oddities of individual experiences and emotional resonances.

Spoilers Ahead

Grace’s Separation From Her Brother, Gilbert

Memoir of a Snail follows Grace Pudel, who, having recently experienced a personal loss, recounts her life story to Sylvia, her pet snail, named after Grace’s mother’s favorite poet. Grace’s life has been sort of a test since the very beginning; her mother lost her life during childbirth, she was born premature with a facial scar—and when she was young, the surgery to fix the scar nearly cost her her life. However, Grace had found strength in her twin brother, Gilbert, since an early age, who stood by her side and protected his sister from any trouble whatsoever. The school years hadn’t been kind towards Grace, as she was bullied for her cleft lip, but Gilbert’s presence helped her cope with the cruel reality. The brother-sister duo took care of their paraplegic, alcoholic father, Percy, who used to be a performer early in his life, until an accident cost him the usage of his legs and left him in a depressed state. Even though the trio didn’t have the most easygoing life one could hope for, there was joy in togetherness. Grace took up her mother’s passion of raising snails and collecting every mollusc-related collectible—and eventually, she likened herself to her mollusc companions, hiding in the shell of emotional barrier without being able to connect with the world outside. Gilbert, a kind soul, had taken after their father’s former profession and wanted to become a performer, while Grace inherited her father’s skill of making stop-motion animations. The Pudel family persevered, facing all the curveballs life had to offer together as a family.

Things took a wrong turn when Percy passed away, resulting in Grace and Gilbert getting taken away by child services and eventually being separated as they were entrusted to different foster families. Gilbert ended up on the far side of the country (Australia), with the religious puritan Appleby family, practically ruled by the strict matriarch Ruth, whereas Grace was taken in by a couple who were kind but not very attentive towards her. Grace’s new parents, Ian and Narelle, tried to help Grace overcome her depressed state of mind with a self-help regime—and that helped as much as you’d think it would. Ruth’s oppressive demeanors ensured Gilbert had no way of pursuing his passions, and she tried her level best to force him to fit in with the family. Grace and Gilbert were stuck with a life from which they wanted to escape desperately, and the letters the siblings exchanged with each other were the only thing that kept either of them going. Grace’s loneliness reflected itself in her habit of hoarding snail collectibles, as in the absence of human connections, inanimate objects became her glass menagerie. Gilbert had promised to save up enough to one day come to Grace and fulful their dreams together.

Grace Found Kindred Souls to Share Her Burden With

Eventually, Grace had befriended Pinky, an elderly member of the library she worked in, and Pinky’s kindness and lively spirit touched Grace as well. Pinky had lived a remarkable, colorful life—and life’s setbacks couldn’t dominate her vigor one bit. Years went by, but while Grace was making a little bit of progress in her life thanks to Pinky, Gilbert was going through the darkest phase of his life, with Ruth trying to mold him into a person he never imagined himself to become. His hobby of practicing tricks with fire was seen as Satan’s influence, and Gilbert’s kindness towards animals exacted a heavy price as Ruth destroyed the only snail collectible from his mother Gilbert had with him. However, the more Ruth tried to dominate Gilbert, the more rebellious he became—and Grace was reasonably concerned for her brother, as she could sense something troubled him, which he chose not to share in his letters. 

Puberty was a tough phase in Grace’s life, as her social anxiety compounded when she had to deal with rejection in love-related affairs and self-consciousness. Pinky, like a mother figure, helped Grace to keep her chin up, but not every emotional issue can be resolved with kindness. Grace eventually found the love of her life in Ken, who appreciated all her uniqueness, quirks, and oddities—loved Grace for who she was. Ken’s presence cheered Grace up, and with Pinky by her side, she had started to believe that she too could dream of a happy life. Grace and Ken decided to marry, and Grace shared the good news with Gilbert, with Ken arranging means for him to visit them during the wedding.

A Downward Spiral

Just when things were brightening up, tragedy struck out of nowhere, as Grace received the news of Gilbert’s untimely passing in a letter from Ruth. Ruth had learned about Gilbert’s romantic relationship with Ben, one of the foster siblings; to punish them and to ‘cure gayness’ out of their system, Ruth tortured them both. A rebellious Gilbert had set the local church on fire, and Ruth had trapped him inside to ensure his demise. The harrowing news of Gilbert’s passing took a piece of her soul from Grace, and she became stuck inside her cloistered existence—truly transforming into a snail hiding inside its shell. Her hoarding habits aggravated into kleptomania, and she put on weight by adopting a lethargic lifestyle. The series of miseries hadn’t ended yet, as Grace discovered Ken was with her not out of love but only to satisfy his macrophilia fetish by clicking pictures of Grace’s body. Suddenly the love Grace thought to have sustained her emotional needs turned out to be nothing more than an objectifying gaze belittling her, and a distraught Grace broke up with Ken.

Pinky helped Grace to find the resolve to carry on and helped her to get in shape by making her go through a strict diet. However, the small wins couldn’t cover up the larger bleak picture, as Grace found herself caught in legal repercussions after her kleptomaniiac tendency was exposed. To make matters much worse, Pinky was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, after which age caught up with her at a rapid pace—and one day, Pinky breathed her last with Grace by her side. Pinky’s death left Grace all alone in a world where she never quite fit in, and this time, she truly had reached rock bottom. She released her snails, recounted her life story to Sylvia, and tried to take her own life by drinking snail poison.

How Did Grace Motivate Herself?

Following a clue from Pinky’s final words, Grace found Pinky’s final letter addressed to her, and she was motivated by her words of encouragement. Using the snail analogy, Pinky tried to convince Grace that she has to brave life’s challenges by moving forward like a snail does, at its own pace. Pinky’s own account of childhood trauma provides Grace a relatable ground, and Grace eventually realizes she has been caught up with her past way too much to move forward. Letting her tragedies define her, Grace has forgotten to hope for a better future and shackled herself in the prison of her mind. 

Pinky’s letter acts as the catalyst to Grace’s inner will to be free, and following Pinky’s advice, she gets rid of all her snail collectibles. Grace also manages to get acquitted from the theft cases, as the judge takes pity on her, seeing her remorse—and Grace remembers she had shown kindness towards the judge when he had hit a rough patch in his life. Having the chance to begin her life anew, Grace decides to pursue her career as a stop motion animator, and a year later, she is in a much better place, attending the premiere of her recently released movie. At the screening, Grace meets her brother, Gilbert, who had survived the fire back then—and a strong surge of emotion marks the reunion of the siblings. Grace and Gilbert fulfill their father, Percy’s wish, by scattering his ashes on the roller-coaster ride where the family of three had cherished a core memory of their lives back in the day. Grace now knows that life can go sideways all over again, but she has her family by her side and doesn’t have to go through a crisis alone. But most importantly, Pinky’s message has imbued Grace with confidence, and she is much more self-reliant now than she used to be. 

...