Doll House is a Netflix film where Rustin, a drug addict, tries to rekindle his daughter who he left behind in Rotterdam. Shortcomings of the past create hurdles but what keeps the relationship sustained is the unrevealed identity of the father.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot Summary
Long patches of greenery and a car racing through them constitute the onset of the movie. A young girl travels to a healthcare centre where she visits an old gentleman who is unaware of who the girl is.
The movie travels back in time to a scene wherein Rustin and Diego, two members of a rock band are seen conversing. After a recent gig, the two of them alongside the other members of the band celebrate Diego’s 40th birthday by consuming drugs and alcohol.
The next morning, Diego is found dead due to an overdose in the apartment they were staying in the night before. After local authorities take the dead body away, Rustin returns home where he has a brief interlude with his father who was an army general. The conversation does not favour Rustin in any way and he goes back to his room.
Weeks later, Rustin arrives in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In a conversation with the cab driver, he states that he used to work and live in the city. After going back to the apartment, he takes a walk on the street which reminds him of the time he proposed to Sheena.
Flashbacks of times of arguments about his career and addiction to drugs hit his head as he walks further down the street and looks at the house he lived in with Sheena before their divorce.
A young man named Bok is seen juggling with a pile of boxes to be taken inside the house. Rustin approaches Bok to help him out with his packages and introduces himself as Cylde. Yumi, Bok’s niece, calls him out, however, not by his name but by calling him Beauty.
Bok invites Rustin (calling him Clyde) inside where the latter stays quiet about the fact that he is, in fact, Yumi’s father who abandoned her and Sheena. Bok goes on to tell Rustin about how he and Rachelle, Sheena’s sister, started looking after Yumi after the death of Sheena and her second husband.
Later, Rustin visits a bar/cafe where a band owner approaches him to become a lead singer. The next morning, Rustin meets Bok who is in distress as he needs someone to babysit Yumi. Rustin steps in and asks if he could do it.
After hesitating at first, Bob finally agrees to let Rustin babysit his niece. Yumi and Rustin tend to spend a lot of time together playing, dancing and building rocket ships.
After returning home Rustin reflects upon himself and thinks of his time with his daughter. Bok comes by Rustin’s apartment the next day to ask whether he could babysit Yumi yet again.
After agreeing to it, Rustin goes to meet Jack, the band owner who approached him earlier. He agrees to become a member of his band if he were to stay in Rotterdam for good. After this brief conversation, he goes back to Yumi who he brought him to the cafe.
After coming back to Bok’s house, Yumi mentions that she wants to become a singer. Her mother and Bok won’t let her audition for an upcoming event without prior vocal lessons. After hearing this, Rustin promises Yumi to train her for the auditions.
The next day, Yumi and Bok visit Rustin yet again and find an unfinished dollhouse. Rustin promises to give it to the little girl only after he finishes it. The three of them then spend the day together at the park, creating a deeper bond between the father and his daughter.
Doll House (2022) ending explained in detail:
How is Rustin’s true identity finally revealed?
All hell breaks loose when they all go back home and Bok gets Rachelle on a video chat. She happens to see Rustin’s face and recognizes him immediately.
After receiving this information, Bok feels deceived and starts interrogating Rustin for his shortcomings. He then tells him to not visit them anymore.
He leaves the place and sits on a bench in the street drunk. His father calls him up and the latter tells him about the happenings in Rotterdam.
Does Rustin fix his relationship with his father?
In a conversation with his father, Rustin admits to having been a horrible son, brother and husband. His father asks him to come back home to the Philippines and stay with him in his house.
A few days pass by and Yumi asks Bok about Rustin (to her, uncle Clyde). She is told sternly that he cannot visit them anymore. However, she sneaks out of her house and goes to Rustin. When Bok comes banging at the door to find Yumi, he sees them running out in a heartwarming moment.
Rustin takes Yumi out to the park to get her vocals set for the singing auditions to be held the next day. They tend to spend more time together as they won’t see each other again after the auditions.
Rachelle and Bok arrive the next day at the place where Yumi’s auditions were to be held. Rustin realises they are late and they run to the venue. Even though Yumi does not perform as expected, Rustin thinks it to be perfect as flashbacks of Sheena put him to tears whilst Yumi sings.
When he returns home from the audition, Rustin consumes heavy drugs and starts working on the unfinished dollhouse. However, when Rachelle, Bok and Yumi arrive at Rustin’s house to get the dollhouse, he is seen taken to the hospital as he fell unconscious due to overdose.
At the hospital, Yumi tries to wake Rustin up by singing but he doesn’t.
A month later, Rachelle bumps into Rustin on the street where the latter tries to explain himself, however, Rachelle refuses Rustin’s request to visit Yumi. He then walks to Sheena’s grave and repents for his actions.
Does Yumi ever get to know her father?
The background voice of grown-up Yumi reveals that she had come to know of Rustin’s true identity just a few years back. Rustin returns to the Philippines and gets into rehab.
Cut back to the present day, the young girl and the old gentleman who was seen at the beginning of the film were Yumi and Rustin respectively. Rustin’s memory was affected by a stroke he had experienced.
Does Yumi ever get her dollhouse?
Yumi spends the entire day with Rustin at the healthcare centre. In the end, when she takes him back to his room, she sees a plethora of dollhouses that her father had made for her.
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