This movie's ending was so annoyingly obtuse that I purchased the book (Era el Cielo); used Google Translate to translate it to English and read it in its entirety. I don't know how translation software impacted the flow of the book, but the translated version was a rambling patchwork of paraphrastic persiflage.
There were significant differences between the book and movie treatment of Mario and Diana. In the opening rape scene in the book Mario noted: "Still motionless, I mentally backed toward the scene and I noticed that something had struck me beyond the rape itself: the softness, they treated her gently." ... "There were no screams or great struggles. Diana's "no" and "please" were followed some "shh" less heavy than air and still with an enormous capacity to smash." The movie's depiction was brutal.
Also, in the book Mario was poised to intervene in the attack: "I grabbed the poker, shook it in the air, and went into the house. I stopped when I heard moans. Through the hoarse, muffled moans of one of the men I also heard a moan from Diana, weaker and more sinuous and appearing and lost and reappeared, coiled to the man's groans like a thread barely narrowest between the hundreds of strands of a steel cable. That was enough to increase the weight of iron in my hand." Diana does not succumb in the movie.
The book ends with Mario conquering his fear of flying and going to his new job in Spain and the actions against the rapists are less conclusive/resolute than in the movie. He beats one up and telephones the other. "My life would be different if I had killed the blonde. It would be darker, more serious, sadder and, paradoxically, less thick. Without taking away a shred of love, he would have given Julian a murderous father. That's what stopped me. Right now, as I write, I relive the joy of having stopped and the relief I felt on the plane when I woke up and noticed that the fury for not having done so had also dissolved. The blond wouldn't approach Diana again, he wasn't dumb after all. A single phone call to the skinhead guy had been enough to make him whine and even plead. He wasn't dumb either: he knew perfectly well what I was telling him."
In the book Diana never discovers that Mario witnessed the rape and Mario has lingering issues with the rape and Diana. "In the same way that I could not tell Diana that I had witnessed the rape to which she had been subjected and that I had not had the courage to intervene, she had no desire to face a new separation, or even the possibility. She had already had too much. A rape is not the best "present" for any couple who has said let's start again. She must have thought so... It's true: her moaning, the moans I heard that stopped me just as I was about to enter don't even deserve the consideration of an excuse. Like then, I'm hurt now. There is not much more to say."
Lastly, the notion that Mario could get on a plane and leave his family near two un-incarcerated rapists who could easily commit the same act again (Diana would not call authorities or tell Mario upon his return) is even more purblind and less plausible than the movie's ending.
Ultimately, Era el Cielo is a horrible story that has no real upshot. Mario and Diana cannot and will not ever be whole again, there is only damage.
There were significant differences between the book and movie treatment of Mario and Diana. In the opening rape scene in the book Mario noted: "Still motionless, I mentally backed toward the scene and I noticed that something had struck me beyond the rape itself: the softness, they treated her gently." ... "There were no screams or great struggles. Diana's "no" and "please" were followed some "shh" less heavy than air and still with an enormous capacity to smash." The movie's depiction was brutal.
Also, in the book Mario was poised to intervene in the attack: "I grabbed the poker, shook it in the air, and went into the house. I stopped when I heard moans. Through the hoarse, muffled moans of one of the men I also heard a moan from Diana, weaker and more sinuous and appearing and lost and reappeared, coiled to the man's groans like a thread barely narrowest between the hundreds of strands of a steel cable. That was enough to increase the weight of iron in my hand." Diana does not succumb in the movie.
The book ends with Mario conquering his fear of flying and going to his new job in Spain and the actions against the rapists are less conclusive/resolute than in the movie. He beats one up and telephones the other. "My life would be different if I had killed the blonde. It would be darker, more serious, sadder and, paradoxically, less thick. Without taking away a shred of love, he would have given Julian a murderous father. That's what stopped me. Right now, as I write, I relive the joy of having stopped and the relief I felt on the plane when I woke up and noticed that the fury for not having done so had also dissolved. The blond wouldn't approach Diana again, he wasn't dumb after all. A single phone call to the skinhead guy had been enough to make him whine and even plead. He wasn't dumb either: he knew perfectly well what I was telling him."
In the book Diana never discovers that Mario witnessed the rape and Mario has lingering issues with the rape and Diana. "In the same way that I could not tell Diana that I had witnessed the rape to which she had been subjected and that I had not had the courage to intervene, she had no desire to face a new separation, or even the possibility. She had already had too much. A rape is not the best "present" for any couple who has said let's start again. She must have thought so... It's true: her moaning, the moans I heard that stopped me just as I was about to enter don't even deserve the consideration of an excuse. Like then, I'm hurt now. There is not much more to say."
Lastly, the notion that Mario could get on a plane and leave his family near two un-incarcerated rapists who could easily commit the same act again (Diana would not call authorities or tell Mario upon his return) is even more purblind and less plausible than the movie's ending.
Ultimately, Era el Cielo is a horrible story that has no real upshot. Mario and Diana cannot and will not ever be whole again, there is only damage.