‘Jumping From High Places’ Ending, Explained: Did Sole Complete All The Things In The List?

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 There is no debate about the fact that mental health representation has long been overdue in cinema. While movies have definitely started smartening up in this regard, it is extremely refreshing to see a story that dedicates itself to depicting how anxiety can affect a person, but with the right support and a little bit of courage, it is possible to live the life you have always dreamed of. Unlike most movies about mental health that prefer to focus on the struggle itself, “Jumping From High Places” focuses on how Sole goes to the other side of it. And this is how the movie achieves this feat.

 Spoilers Ahead


Sole’s List And Her Attempts At Completing It

“Jumping From High Places” starts with Sole Santoro being the person you just don’t want to stand behind in a line. She has trouble making up her mind about the ice cream flavor she wants and changes her order at least 20 times. Throughout the film, Sole breaks the fourth wall and talks to her audience. She lets us know that she has a generalized anxiety disorder, but she says she has been good for a year now as she has not had any panic attacks, and she is off her meds as well. Sole lost her best friend to a car crash, an incident that haunts her to this day.

When she returns home, she comes to know that Massimo, who is her childhood crush as well as Emma’s brother, is back in town. He hands her a letter that Emma had left for her right before her death. Sole is upset about receiving it because she had not seen the letter when she was helping Emma’s parents clean up her things, which means that Massimo had deliberately withheld it from her. She is figuring out how to deal with this new development in her life when she is invited to Lucia’s party that night, where she meets Leonardo, Miriam, Giulia, and Marta. Sole gets a little drunk and reveals that her anxiety has held her back in life, and she really wants to do the things on her list, the first of which includes getting a job. But luck shines, and the next day, she gets the job as a waitress at Betty’s restaurant. At the same time, anxiety rears its ugly head, and Sole is scared of screwing it up, but with a little encouragement from her friends, she goes for it.

At no point has Lucia’s anxiety disappeared? It has just taken a backseat to let her live her life as she pleases. The next day, she goes out with Massimo after they resolve their differences and spend some nice time together. Through her friends, Sole meets Danio, and they get along well together. They have a nice date of sorts at the beach, which Sole wants to leave immediately as she doesn’t want to see a person take a high dive. Nevertheless, both of them spend the rest of the day together, and when he is dropping her off, she spots Massimo with his ex-girlfriend Vittoria, which upsets her. She talks about it with her therapist, who advises her to deal with the problem directly. Dr. Basile drops some gems of wisdom where he says that it is only her responsibility to communicate how she feels. Taking the cue, she talks to Massimo about it and comes to know that it was all of no consequence. Life moves on, and Sole is ticking off the things from her list with some encouragement from her friends.

At one point, we come to know that the reason Emma and Sole fought was that the former handed her a ticket to Paris, asking her to come to visit. But Sole had never been able to travel due to her anxiety, and she blamed Emma for leaving her alone in the town. Emma had yelled back that if Sole had a problem, she needed to fight it instead of running away from it. For her 25th birthday, Sole decides to go to Paris and spend it with Xavier. When she tells this to Massimo, he gets upset as somewhere, he blames Xavier for Emma’s death, but Sole encourages him to look past it. She kisses him, but Massimo withdraws, surprised. Sole takes it as a rejection and leaves immediately.

The next day, she leaves for Paris but has a panic attack at the airport and is forced to return to Apulia. But Xavier has arrived there, and they have a good talk about life. Her birthday is celebrated with all of her friends. After the party, Massimo comes and tells her that he doesn’t like her, but Sole realizes that her feelings for him have changed. The following morning, the girls pick up Sole. Miriam discloses her struggles with alopecia and asks Sole to shave her head. That night, she participates in the Miss Bare contest, celebrating and accepting her beauty as it is.


‘Jumping From High Places’ Ending Explained: Did Sole Complete All The Things In The List?

When Sole was unable to leave for Paris, she worried that she had regressed, but Dr. Basile reassured her that healing is far from linear, and she should take these occasional hiccups with a pinch of salt. Leaving for Paris was on her list, but when her friends asked her to come to Rome to live with them, she added it to her list and decided to take the plunge. When she informs her parents about her plan, her mother is very discouraged. It is a representation of how mental illness can often run in the family, as it looks like even her mother has anxiety, though it is most probably undiagnosed. The last thing on Sole’s list is to find love. Which she does with Danio. He promises to come to Rome next so that they can be together. Sole leaves for Rome with Miriam, a little worried that she might make a mistake but smiling at the same time because it would still be okay.


Final Thoughts: What Works For ‘Jumping From High Places’ Film?

“Jumping From High Places” is a crisp movie that paints a great picture of what dealing with anxiety on a daily basis can look like. We have always maintained that the devil is in the details, and we love just how well the nuances of the condition have been caught. This is Sole’s story throughout. It is shown clearly that anxiety was not something that she got over; it was just something that she dealt with, one step at a time, and sought out the life she wanted. It was nice to see the movie take a sweeter route instead of just hyper-focusing on the stigma and the struggle. It’s a great watch and must be on everybody’s list. We really hope it gets the hype it deserves because this movie is all that and a bag of chips. We absolutely love it and would want everyone to watch it as well.


“Jumping From High Places” is a 2022 Drama Romance film directed by Andrea Jublin.

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Divya Malladi
Divya Malladi
Divya spends way more time on Netflix and regrets most of what she watches. Hence she has too many opinions that she tries to put to productive spin through her writings. Her New Year resolution is to know that her opinions are validated.

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