'Maintenance Required' Movie Ending Explained: Did Charlie and Beau Get Together?

Madeline Petsch-starrer Maintenance Required is a trophy rom-com that, despite being about communication, ends up falling into the communication-gap trope. The film, which simply switches some things up from 1998’s You’ve Got Mail, tells the story of Charlie, a young woman who runs an all-women car-mechanic store with her 2 buddies. When the movie opens, she’s already corresponding with a man online, and while they’ve got so much in common and get along amazingly well, they don’t even know each other’s names. At the same time, Charlie’s world comes crashing down when a big chain car showroom called the Miller Boys opens up right across from her hand-me-down business. Will this mess things up for Charlie? Will she ever meet her mystery man? And does it all work out for her in the end? Let’s find out in Maintenance Required.

Spoiler Alert

Why Does Beau Quit Being a Closer? 

While the main conflict in the movie is between Charlie and Beau, her love interest, each of them has their own stuff to take care of. For one, Beau’s a “closer” for the big corporation that’s taken over the office opposite Charlie’s shop and spends a lot of time defending what he’s doing because this is “corporate America,” and everyone goes for the buck first. But, in truth, he’s clearly unhappy, which is why he’s been spending all his time texting a girl whose name he doesn’t know about their one common interest, fixing old cars. Is it really that simple? Well, apparently so. Beau isn’t necessarily a different person while talking to Charlie and being a corporate slave, but you can tell that he’s got more to his personality than just making rich people richer. He has his own dreams, also including classic cars, just like Charlie, so he’s doing the slavery to live his dream. But, as you can imagine, that doesn’t ever work out as planned, and just as Beau loses the girl, he also quits his job because he’s never going to get the opportunities he’s looking for while working under somebody. The difference between the two is that Beau’s already worked a long time to make money and start his own thing, while Charlie is in debt and has even considered selling her beloved car, i.e., her dad’s old car that she’s been fixing up throughout the course of the movie. So, Beau quitting isn’t as bad as it seems, but maybe he already had a plan in mind if things worked out with Charlie. 

What Happens To O’Malley’s? 

Charlie inherited her dad’s car shop and loves everything about it. She grew up there, as she claims, with wrenches, not Barbies, so she definitely enjoys working on cars. But the little maintenance work that she’s been doing so far hasn’t been giving her the satisfaction she needs. Additionally, she’s just been doing this job mindlessly rather than actually considering what she wants. It’s just been a burden on her, this big responsibility that she never wanted in the first place. So, when the chain brand opens up shop right in front of them, she’s initially super mad and even fights to keep O’Malley’s by making it a man vs. woman situation. This is also because she’s furious at Beau, who by this time has grabbed her attention in the real world, not realizing who she is (his dream internet princess). 

Truthfully, that makes Beau a liar twice because the first time, he doesn’t tell Charlie that he’s basically come to O’Malley’s to suss them out, and the second time is because he doesn’t tell her that he’s “Bullnose,” the guy who has been texting Charlie this whole time (tsk tsk). Anyway, when the Miller Boys show up, Charlie’s friend Izzy suggests that they run a nail salon in the shop too so that clients who are way too busy to do their own nails can just wait and get them done while their cars are being fixed. 

When Charlie’s completely lost faith and doesn’t know what else to do, Izzy says she doesn’t have to sell Marge, Charlie’s dad’s car that she’s been working to revive for so long; instead, she’ll run the nail salon at the front of the garage, at least so they can make the overheads. Since she’s not getting any other work, this allows Charlie to try and live her dream, i.e., start a classic car restoration shop named “Revival Rides.” By this time, Charlie’s been stood up by Bullnose, but that’s because Beau realized that she was his dream girl and didn’t know how to break the news to her. I suppose you could say he just didn’t want to mess things up between them. But Bullnose apologizes for standing her up, and so, while she’s in a decent mood, Beau also makes a move by inviting her to a classic car show. Given that she’s trying something new, Charlie agrees to join him, and she feels a little better knowing that the garage is safe with someone who knows how important the place is and wants it the way Charlie’s dad and she did. 

How Do Charlie And Beau Get Together? 

After the car show, the duo have a great time and go back to his place. Of course, they get handsy with each other, because they’ve both clearly been waiting for too long anyway. However, in the middle of funny business, Charlie wants the bathroom but gets the garage instead. This leads her straight to the car that Bullnose had shown her he was working on. Seeing the car adds everything up for Charlie, making her realize that Beau’s been playing her. But he tells her that he was afraid to tell her and had only known since the night at the restaurant. He makes some awkward word choices for sure because he says he wouldn’t have worked for Miller Boys if he had known it would hurt “someone like” Charlie. She thinks this is about how they come from different worlds, or the fact that she’s a woman, so this doesn’t do well for her. She storms out of whatever it is they had at that point. 

In Maintenance Required’s ending, there’s no solid conflict resolution. Charlie just realizes that, despite everything Beau did, she still misses him because she likes him very much and doesn’t think she can find anyone else like him. Obviously, he can’t do anything in this situation except run away in his fancy car, so she follows him. Sure, Beau’s not a bad guy, and he didn’t really mean to hurt Charlie, but he could’ve just told her the truth when he realized it. Instead, he pretended he didn’t know her when he knew her better than anybody else, which in my books is no good (but also, all menfolk, eh?). Anyway, ultimately, the garage is saved because of the nail salon, but a year later, Beau and Charlie start their own business on the inside, Revival Rides is finally a thing, and everyone gets a happily ever after. 

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