Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Featured Audience Ratings

• paul o

  
  You can tell that this film was meticulously drawn out but the final work is hard to comprehend. The film is existential to the max and only lets true scholars understand its true meaning which may make some bitter after watching such a film.

• Aditya G

  
  Charlie Kaufman, the man behind such interesting screenplays like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Being John Malkovich" tries his hand at directing one such outlandish script of his own, "Synecdoche, New York" (A play of words on… More
  Charlie Kaufman, the man behind such interesting screenplays like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Being John Malkovich" tries his hand at directing one such outlandish script of his own, "Synecdoche, New York" (A play of words on "Schenectady, New York", and the concept of "synecdoche" itself!) Plot: Beginning on a rather mundane note, the film introduces us to theater director, Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), his wife - a budding artist Adele (Catherine Keener) and his daughter Olive. Caden and Adele's marriage is on the rocks. While Adele isn't happy with Caden, Caden clearly is still attached to Adele and Olive. Caden's new play meets with a lot of success and critical acclaim. Soon after, Adele takes off to Berlin to pursue her art further, with her daughter Olive, promising to return about a month later. In the midst of all this, we are also introduced a perpetually stoned Maria (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Claire, the actress (Michelle Williams) and the comely box office girl at the theater, Hazel (Samantha Morton) who has the hots for Caden. We gradually learn that Caden suffers from a variety of physical ailments including some unexplained skin lesions and a nervous disorder suppressing his autonomous functions. [img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MO27SKwaA0U/TqBO91feCAI/AAAAAAAACCE/fokUrJZdpYo/s672/vlcsnap-2011-10-20-20h33m19s154.jpg[/img] The Charlie Kaufman angle to the story begins one day when Caden receives a MacArthur Fellowship that bestows upon him financial means to pursue his artistic interests. Determined to give the aid its worth, Caden begins working on his masterpiece, a larger than life stage play that would be unparalleled and honest, more close to real life than anything else. As the play and its characters begin to take shape, the lines between reality and the play script begin to blur and Caden loses all sense of time and place and so does the audience...... Themes/motifs: There are various themes explored in "Synecdoche, New York". There is a constant sense of death, decay and sickness going on right from the beginning. The TV screen shows an animation of a virus, the magazine Caden receives in his mailbox has a cover page speaking about disease and cure, the milk in the fridge seems to have got spoilt, and so on. Olive seems to think something is wrong with her 'cause her stools are green! Caden keeps reiterating too, that he "doesn't feel well". There are numerous visits to doctors, a particularly scary seizure that Caden experiences (one of the finest pieces of acting I've ever seen...Hoffman is more than convincing!). With physical decay there is also a decay of moral values, of relationships.....like failed marriages, extramarital stints, eventual guilt and an innocent little girl being exposed to the risqué business at an early age with her body being tattooed at the age of 10...! There is a constant feeling of loneliness and longing throughout, as the protagonist experiences it. Then there is the delusion, particularly the "Cotard Delusion" (perhaps, hence the name "Caden Cotard" for the main character?) . Several other motifs abound, like the "scale" with which both artists work. While Adele makes "miniature" paintings and the size of her paintings diminishes as time and the film itself progresses, Caden's work becomes larger and larger in the form of the life-size replica of New York in a warehouse! It also reflects the theme concerning bridging the gap between dream and reality, as Caden's dream begins to take shape in reality...or does it? The theme of "play within play...within play...." Is stressed upon throughout, as lookalikes brought in to play real life characters, end up having more lookalikes to play the lookalikes! Just like Sammy (Tom Noonan) is brought in to play Caden, and another person is brought in to play Sammy. It is all an endless cycle....a never-ending quest for something (perhaps an exercise in self-realization for all those involved) that seems to reach no conclusion. The stage production goes on for a whopping 17 years when one of the crew members points it out to Caden. It is only then that we, the audience, realize that so much time has indeed passed! [img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-YH4cp0wbD-o/TqBO96qCmeI/AAAAAAAACCI/Bs0-LaWfl7A/s672/vlcsnap-2011-10-20-20h34m21s9.jpg[/img] Review: Kaufman tries to do justice to his highly surreal story but does he succeed? Well, almost! It should be noted that there is a strong resemblance to Federico Fellini's masterpiece "8 1/2" as far as the main theme is concerned. Just as Guido in that film tries to build an ambitious film project brutally honest and closer to life from his own personal experiences, Caden embarks on a similar mission. The difference being, Guido suffered from a Director's block, Caden didn't! Parallels can also be drawn to David Lynch's "Inland Empire" as far as the "play within a play" motif is concerned ("Film within film" in case of Lynch's film). "Synecdoche, New York" is all well-intentioned...there are quite a few terrific scenes embedded in the script. There is a sense of despair and sorrow throughout that works in the film's favour. Kaufman really got himself involved in this project and it shows. Only there is such a thing as being too involved! It almost seems that just like his lead character Caden, Kaufman got too engrossed in making his dream project that is this film and got lost somewhere in the maze of delusion himself, so what could one say about us audiences! While the film maintains considerable coherence for almost the first 80 minutes, it seems to spiral out of control after that. Lynch's "Inland Empire" suffered from a similar syndrome but Lynch, being Lynch, managed to make up for the muddled script with enthralling imagery and intriguing surprises along the way! Alas, not everyone is David Lynch and hence, making a surreal film isn't everyone's forte. Kaufman tries very hard, makes a strong attempt and almost gets close to making a winner, but falls a tad short, nonetheless! [img]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-vIk2t6Vk7JA/TqBUeov6KDI/AAAAAAAACCc/OaXN7xXj96g/s672/vlcsnap-2011-10-20-22h33m15s118.jpg[/img] That doesn't take away Kaufman's credibility though, and praise must be showered where it is due. Some of the themes/episodes in "Synecdoche, New York" ooze brilliance and are quite unique. Like the house that is eternally on fire, is one awesomely bizarre idea! And for some strange reason that particular part reminded me of the Coen Brothers' underrated flick, "Barton Fink"! Kaufman directs really well, until the last few minutes when he struggles to maintain the tautness in the script 'til he finally takes to the film's bleak conclusion. The editing by Robert Frazen is commendable. Chronologies are shuffled but the timeline is lucid enough to comprehend. The performances are spectacular. Philip Seymour Hoffman deserves a standing ovation for his magnificent performance. Only one wishes he didn't mumble his lines as much in some of his scenes! Amongst the ladies, it is Catherine Keener and Samantha Morton that emerge clear winners. Robin Weigert and Jennifer Jason Leigh impress in their respective miniscule roles but don't get much to do, unfortunately. Charlie Kaufman's efforts are noteworthy and "Synecdoche, New York" is not a film that should be ignored. Yes, it is self-indulgent... yes, it is somewhat incoherent. But that said, yes, it is also essential viewing. Give this film a chance; it is worth your time, simply because it isn't something you get to see every day. Oh...and regardless of the comparisons, don't go in expecting another "8 1/2"! 7.5/10

• Thomas B

  
  Now watch as Charlie Kaufman disappears up his own arse! With style. Full review later.

• Dan S

  
  A daring, inventive, polarizing motion picture that falters at times but still succeeds due to its final scene's emotional power and the strength of its lead performer, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Like many of Kaufman's stories, it's very strange and there's no way… More
  A daring, inventive, polarizing motion picture that falters at times but still succeeds due to its final scene's emotional power and the strength of its lead performer, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Like many of Kaufman's stories, it's very strange and there's no way you'll totally "get" everything. Although this film drops off from time to time and threatens to get too self-congratulatory with its massive scope, it is undoubtedly an unforgettable, surreal story that is effectively captured if beautifully flawed (it doesn't quite replicate the emotional impact it strikes at its grim conclusion throughout the whole story, something I think Kaufman was aiming for). It's definitely one of those movies I'll want to revisit in a couple years or so just to see if I can understand a little bit more of it.

• Anthony L

  
  Maybe the word masterpiece is overused these days but for this film, it's for lack of a better word. I regard Kaufman as prolific a writer as William S. Burroughs, Anthony Burgess and even George Orwell if a funny kind of way but now he's a film director too, and I can only… More
  Maybe the word masterpiece is overused these days but for this film, it's for lack of a better word. I regard Kaufman as prolific a writer as William S. Burroughs, Anthony Burgess and even George Orwell if a funny kind of way but now he's a film director too, and I can only say about bloody time! He's obviously got the talent, this has got to be one of the best and most surprising debuts since Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter, a classic that only became so, long after it's release, something I suspect may happen here (did anyone actually see The Shawshank Redemption at the cinema?). I digress, Synecdoche, New York is a wonderful paranoid-life-journey-extravaganza of fear, angst, regret and despair (with a little bit of ambition in there for good measure). All the interesting aspects of life basically. Anyone can put a cute little rabbit in a film and make everyone happy, and if that's your cup of tea, then there is plenty out there to go round. Why do people regard this film as pretentious? Just put your hands up and say you don't understand it, there's nothing pretentious about that. It's so cram packed with symbolism it's impossible to catch everything in just one watch, I personally am looking forward to seeing it again, more than once even! When cinema is this good it deserves a second look. I can only compare it to being like a cross between Eraserhead (paranoia) and Fellini's 8 1/2 but directed by the son of Ingmar Bergman & Jean Renoir (with Luis Buñuel) and that only begins to describe it. Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the most talented actors working today and in my opinion, and Kaufman has cast the best female line-up ever in one film. Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michelle Williams and Emily Watson are my favourite actresses and all of them give great performances. This film has jumped straight to the top of my favourite films list, it's probably now in my top 10 of all time! I can't recommend it enough.

• Luke B

  
  Kaufman has always split me down the middle. He's a wonderful writer at times, but sometimes his vision hasn't had the best representation (I found Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind incredibly overrated). Due to the very mixed reviews, I was able to approach this film… More
  Kaufman has always split me down the middle. He's a wonderful writer at times, but sometimes his vision hasn't had the best representation (I found Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind incredibly overrated). Due to the very mixed reviews, I was able to approach this film with no idea of what to expect. At times confusing, at times obvious, but always interesting Synecdoche, New York, is one of the most honest depictions of life put to film. Kaufman handles the complex narrative structure very well. There are some fantastic scenes, where we see a play within a play, and that play reflects more of real life than life itself. Hoffman learns to look at himself but also those around him. Hoffman tries to recreate his own life, but it becomes a never ending process. Perhaps one of the (minor) failures of the film itself. I found this to be touching and truthful, but it certainly isn't going to find universal acclaim.

• Daniel P

  
  Synecdoche, New York is a frustrating film. Stepping into the ring with Charlie Kaufman, I suppose that's what I should have expected, but the devices and the tricks overshadow the plot to the point where it's almost unwatchable. The acting in this film is very good -… More
  Synecdoche, New York is a frustrating film. Stepping into the ring with Charlie Kaufman, I suppose that's what I should have expected, but the devices and the tricks overshadow the plot to the point where it's almost unwatchable. The acting in this film is very good - Michelle Williams has come so far from Dawson's Creek, her supporting role shines - but it's not enough to save the wandering story as it goes through the various smokescreens Kaufman sets up. Not nearly as approachable as Being John Malkovich or Adaptation, and that is to its detriment: when you're going to tell a slice-of-life story, there has to be some redemption somewhere, if not for the characters then at the very least, for the viewer, so that s/he doesn't feel like an idiot for sitting through the whole two hours. This film seems based on a premise that I can't buy into, that being that life is effectively not worth living. It's cynical, but not blackly funny; rather, it's just mean-spirited. The odd thing is that, instead of taking a positive impetus away from it ("I should live my life better, in the way this movie recommends"), I took away a negative one ("Who is this crotchety idiot? I'm going to live my life to the fullest JUST TO SHOW HIM THAT HE'S AN IDIOT). And there, I guess, is the redemption, the big payoff: I did take something away from this movie. Rather intelligent, but rather indulgent, Synecdoche is as conflicted as all Kaufman works, but less fun to watch than the rest up to this point... even Eternal Sunshine, which I still don't understand... this might be a great film. I didn't feel it, though.

• Michael S

  
  You know, I'm all for artistic expression and films out of the ordinary; but "Synecdoche, New York" is one of the most pretentious, overlong and all-around self-indulgent misfires I've seen in a very long time. It's not the least bit subtle; it's actually… More
  You know, I'm all for artistic expression and films out of the ordinary; but "Synecdoche, New York" is one of the most pretentious, overlong and all-around self-indulgent misfires I've seen in a very long time. It's not the least bit subtle; it's actually really heavy-handed, which makes the mystery behind what the hell it all means non existent and in my opinion not worth exploring or revisiting for a second or third time. This is a major letdown from kauffman. I've liked all of the films he has written, and the directing on display here is very competent. The problem lies within his script this time around. It really isn't up to his usual caliber, and the film (at 2h 3min.) seemed to drag and was, for lack of a better word, UNPLEASANT.

• Drew S

  
  Synecdoche, New York is a piping hot load of art-house horse shit, masquerading as a million things but not really giving us any reason to be invested in any of them. At large the movie would seem to present itself as some metatheatrical look into art, life, and creation, through the… More
  Synecdoche, New York is a piping hot load of art-house horse shit, masquerading as a million things but not really giving us any reason to be invested in any of them. At large the movie would seem to present itself as some metatheatrical look into art, life, and creation, through the eyes of a Kaufman-esque (played with investment but no real stretching by Philip Seymour Hoffman) and brimming with humor utterly absurd enough to distort the fourth wall. That humor, along with the exaggerated musical cues, and the squarely unimaginative casting of Seymour Hoffman, and some really awful late-game passes at emotional string pulling, would seem to be Kaufman's devices to make the movie accessible to us. Whether that was his intention or not, or even if it was his intention to make them all deliriously bad, the movie is immediately and irreparably dishonest for trying to establish a connection through tried-and-true cliches. The fact that it knows that they are cliches does not change that; it's essentially looking a viewer in the eye and saying with a wink "hey, this is stuff that works on people in ~LESSER MOVIES~, so why shouldn't it work for you here too, heh heh". And maybe that helps some viewers to feel better about themselves, smarter perhaps, but here it looks like a movie's vain struggle to make itself seem unimpeachably intelligent and wholly focused and thoughtful. Far. Fucking. From it. And look, we all know that Kaufman plays around with narratives that break the fourth wall and the perceptions of reality and all that shit. We loved it in Being John Malkovich, we loved it in Eternal Sunshine, we loved it in Adaptation. Here I could only wonder what's given him the right to put together this narcissistic fantasia of the three, short of 20 million dollars' worth of masturbatory self-interest. I would never decry an auteur for pursuing his personal interests in the cinematic medium and then releasing it for others to indulge in, but it doesn't mean that I automatically have to enjoy or even appreciate the finished product. This plays like Kaufman's Greatest Hits, a movie self-referential in its self-reference and so on until it spirals out into some horrifying Escher pattern. Any third grader can do that. His only true aim in creating Synecdoche, New York was to encompass as many themes and tones and possible and then shield his condemning lack of focus with the umbrella of metafiction. Even the film's grandest conceit, a life-sized copy of New York inside a theater in New York, reflects this, and yet to what end? By the time Kaufman had exhausted his bag of tricks, I had checked out of this tiresome slog, taking nothing from the film except a newfound disdain for these supposedly "clever" narratives. I'm scared to ever watch Adaptation again. Essentially, Synecdoche says "fuck you I do what I want" to its befuddled audience, and in concept I do admire that temerity. If one thing can be said for the film, it's that it is ambitious. Expecting a viewer to accept, ruminate on, and defend every single aspect of a film where not even the film is interested in defending them just smacks of arrogance to me. The movie is stiflingly arrogant and enamored with itself, and for all the emotional payloads and philosophical mumblings about life it may have tried to put forth, I simply couldn't have cared about any of them.

• paul s

  
  reminiscent of David Lych's Inland Empire (which I just now realized how the title has a double meaning - doh!) this film explores how we as humans interact with each other and our expectations of not only ourselves but others (and how one's perceptions can change over… More
  reminiscent of David Lych's Inland Empire (which I just now realized how the title has a double meaning - doh!) this film explores how we as humans interact with each other and our expectations of not only ourselves but others (and how one's perceptions can change over time). We compatmentalize and then complain when others do not stay in the pretty little boxes we create for them (and do we realize that we ourselves often escape from our own self inflicted boxes?). The film blurs the time line and this can be irritating, and yet I suppose true to one's relationship with memories and how they too can change with time and effect how we deal with the here and now. The first third of this film seems normal enough; a self absorbed playwrite with neurosis aplenty, is at a loss to understand why the "perfect" life he's created for himself - wife and child and a meaningful job in the profession he desires - is unraveling. He seems unequiped to repair his relationship and meekly watches it desolve. From this point it's all a reflection on who, and why, under the guise of a play he is writing and directing - relationships flitter in and out as memories so often do - and time slips away. There are many clever inventions at play here, from the very beginning where we see a man on the edges of the action watching - who later becomes the "actor" who portrays the writer. At the end of the film, as an 80 year old cleans his house (how's that for a metaphor?) and then awakens to see how the elaborate set he's created has become filled with grafetti and trash due to neglect, he then relinqushes control of the play (and his life) to others; and in the final scenes picks up an ear piece that tells him what to do and how to act as he comes upon a bit actor in his life who manages to give him compassion - as he rest his head on her shoulder the voice in his ear/head then say, simply, "die" - fade to white. A film on this type of topic seems impossible to nail to perfection - it simply can't be done, just as defining humanity can't be done - but here Kaufman seems more on the mark and focused than some other efforts. Certainly a film to discuss and a bit more accessable than the Lynch film (and a whole lot shorter!)

• Gordon A

  
  Achingly pretentious exercise in narrative games which requires supreme concentration to follow but does reward perseverance with a desolate performance from Hoffman at its heart.

• Dean M

  
  The storyline becomes incresingly convoluted, warping into a kind of play-within-a-within-a-film. The action takes place in a New York City warehouse, which is designed to resemble a massive indoor replica of The Big Apple. Inside the warehouse is a smaller set of the warehouse... and… More
  The storyline becomes incresingly convoluted, warping into a kind of play-within-a-within-a-film. The action takes place in a New York City warehouse, which is designed to resemble a massive indoor replica of The Big Apple. Inside the warehouse is a smaller set of the warehouse... and so on. Screenwriter-director Charlie Kaufman's film's themes are ambitious, but the film is at time incomprehensible, and far too long. This should be quite a bit strange when the time passes on the tale of one man, Philip Seymour Hoffman's Caden Cotard, and his struggle to under his place in the world from his family, several lovers and the warehouse.

• First L

  
  Synecdoche, New York is actually a play on Schenectady, New York. Synecdoche is a figure of speech, in which a specific term is used to describe something as a whole (when someone says "two countries are going to war", they're referring to those countries'… More
  Synecdoche, New York is actually a play on Schenectady, New York. Synecdoche is a figure of speech, in which a specific term is used to describe something as a whole (when someone says "two countries are going to war", they're referring to those countries' militarys, not the literal countries or citizens as a whole). What's the synecdoche here? It's the representation of the human condition, through the experiences of one character. Said character is "Caden Cotard" (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a theater director who creates a play the size of a city and asks his actors to rehearse in it for decades. the details of this, or even of the plot itself are of little importance, what the film shows is not a story but an emotion. It's purpose is to create impressions and leaves it to the audience to see the big picture. It's an ambitious undertaking that at times is nearly crushed under it's own intricacies. If it could be compared to any other film in terms of "feel", I'd say it's closest relative would be "Eraserhead", both in it's surrealism (from the audience's point-of-view) and the expressionistic way in which it presents its ideas. Writer/director Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) makes use of metaphor in a way no other modern american filmmaker is doing, he reaches down into the subconsciousness and pulls up images of human nitemares, fears, phobias and neuroses. By it's own nature, I suppose it's inevitably cynical, but that cynicism eventually brings the movie down a bit. Others might wind up being turned off by last half, as Cotard's play becomes more about his own life and his interaction with the actors of his play, he needs to bring in actors to portray the actors interacting with the actors who are interacting with the actors. Love this film or hate it, it's a work of singular brilliance that isn't seen very often today.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"I breathe your name on every exhalation"</i> A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play. <center><font size=+2… More
  <i>"I breathe your name on every exhalation"</i> A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> Synecdoche, New York is a firecracker display that sets the audience up for a grand epic of adventures then sputters its lovable way through over two hours of loosely connected views of life as we live it - through the eyes of an increasingly physically disabled director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Trying to summarize what the story is and does is always as risky task when it comes to Charlie Kaufman films and the audience for this work will be decidedly separated between the love it or hate it division. Kaufman manages to address so many issues (marriage, adultery, joblessness, that thin thread of sanity that keeps actors committed to impossibly complex problematic productions, etc) that keeping up with the nonlinear story line is challenging at best. But with a cast of characters as finely portrayed by actors such as Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Hope Davis, Michelle Williams, Jennifer Jason Leigh et al, the whole crazy film works wonders on the imagination. This is pure entertainment for the sake of entertainment and while Caden Cotard does represent Everyman searching for some semblance of meaning in a universe that makes little sense (except that death is inevitable!), it is the process more than the dialogue that makes this film such a pleasure to follow. Charlie Kaufman has done it again.

• Greg S

  
  Community theater director Caden's marriage and health are crumbling, until he mysteriously receives a MacArthur genius grant that allows him to stage his masterpiece: a recreation of his own town inside a giant warehouse. Surreal, confusing, witty and absurdly hilarious;… More
  Community theater director Caden's marriage and health are crumbling, until he mysteriously receives a MacArthur genius grant that allows him to stage his masterpiece: a recreation of his own town inside a giant warehouse. Surreal, confusing, witty and absurdly hilarious; despite the fractured narrative, a touching and curiously complete portrait emerges of the artist as an old man.

• E.J. B

  
  Many critics have been bashing Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut as lacking exactly that, a director. I disagree. I think Kaufman is more than able to hold a film together. Synecdoche, New York is bizarre, but no more so than Adaptation, Being John Malcovich, or Eternal… More
  Many critics have been bashing Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut as lacking exactly that, a director. I disagree. I think Kaufman is more than able to hold a film together. Synecdoche, New York is bizarre, but no more so than Adaptation, Being John Malcovich, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It is, however, extremely sad. It's hard for me to explain the plot without taking away so much of the film's magic. You have to see this film twice, three times, four times. It is simply wonderful. What is it about? I'll tell you. The film is about us. How do we see ourselves? How do we see other people? Can we ever say we truly know ourselves, or our friends, or our spouses, and can we ever be happy knowing that we'll never know everything or everyone. Everyone goes through the same experiences, just in different ways. The specifics of each experience change our perceptions of ourselves and others. In essence, they help create a story to tell about our lives. I'm not one to care about how much I could follow in Synecdoche, New York. I care about what I took away from the film once the credits rolled. And I can say that I was deeply touched by its message. I loved it and I want to see it again.

• Nicki M

  
  I didn't hate this, but it was quite hard going. It skipped along so quickly that I had trouble keeping up with it and some parts, such as the burning house, I just found totally ridiculous. I did really like the end voice over about how everyone has the same life and death.… More
  I didn't hate this, but it was quite hard going. It skipped along so quickly that I had trouble keeping up with it and some parts, such as the burning house, I just found totally ridiculous. I did really like the end voice over about how everyone has the same life and death. Maybe it is a movie that would benefit from a rewatch when I know what to expect.

• Nate Z

  
  [font=Arial][color=DarkRed]Nothing comes easy when dealing with acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. The most exciting scribe in Hollywood does not tend to water down his stories. Kaufman's latest head-trip, [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i], is a polarizing work that follows a… More
  [font=Arial][color=DarkRed]Nothing comes easy when dealing with acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. The most exciting scribe in Hollywood does not tend to water down his stories. Kaufman's latest head-trip, [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i], is a polarizing work that follows a nontraditional narrative and works on a secondary existential level. That's enough for several critics to hurtle words like "incomprehensible" and "confusing" as weapons intended to marginalize [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i] as self-indulgent prattle. I guess no one wants to go to the movies and think any more. Thinking causes headaches, after all. Caden (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a struggling 40-year-old theater director trying to find meaning in his beleaguered life. His wife (Catherine Keener) has run off to Germany with his little daughter, Olive. He also manages to botch a potential romance with Hazel (Samantha Morton), a woman who works in the theater box-office who has an unusual crush on Caden. He's also plagued by numerous mysterious health ailments that only seem to multiply. While his life seems to be in the pits, Caden is offered a theater grant of limitless money. He has big ambitions: he will restage every moment of his whole life to try and discover the hard truths about life and death. Caden must then cast actors to portray the various people in his life. Sammy (Tom Noonan) argues that no other actor could get closer to the truth of Caden; Sammy has been following and studying Caden for over 20 years (don't bother asking why in a movie like this). Caden also casts his new wife, Claire (Michelle Williams), as herself. The theater production gets more and more complex, eventually requiring the "Caden" character to hire his own Caden actor. Caden hires Hazel to be his assistant and Sammy falls in love with her. Caden admonishes his actor, "That Hazel isn't for you." Caden then tries sleeping with "Hazel" (Emily Watson) to get even with the real Hazel. By producing a theatrical mechanism that almost seems self-sustaining, Caden wants to leave his mark on the world and potentially live forever. I heard plenty of blather about how mind-numbing [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i] was and how Kaufman had really done it this time when he composed a script that involves characters playing characters playing characters. People told me that it was all too much to keep track of and that it made their brains hurt. The movie is complex, yes, and demands a viewer to be actively engaged, but the movie is far from confusing and any person or critic that just throws up their hands and says, "Nope, too much to think about," is doing their brain a disservice. The movie is relatively easy to follow in a simple linear cause-effect manner; Kaufman only really goes as deep as two iterations from reality, meaning that Caden has his initial doppelganger and then eventually that doppelganger must get his own Caden doppelganger (it's not nearly as confusing as it sounds if you see it). Now, where the movie might be tricky to understand is how deeply contemplative and metaphorical it can manage to be, especially at its somber close. That doesn't mean that [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i] is impossible to understand only that it requires some extra effort to appreciate. But this movie pays off in huge ways on repeat viewings, adding texture to Kaufman's intricately plotted big picture, unfolding into a richer statement about the nature of life and death and love. Theater has often been an easy metaphor for life. William Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts." Kaufman movies always dwell substantially with the nature of identity, and [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i] views identity through the artifice of theater. Caden searches for something brutal and true via the stage, but of course eventually his search for truth becomes compromised with personal interests. Characters in Caden's life are altered and in the end when Caden steps down, as himself, reality starts getting revised The truth is often blurred through the process of interpretation. Caden ends up swapping identities with a bit player in the story of his life, potentially finding a greater sense of personal comfort as someone else. Don't we all play characters in our lives? Don't we all assume different identities for different purposes? Do we act differently at a job than at home, at church than at a bar? Caden remarks that there are no extras in life and that everyone is a lead in his or her own story. Kaufman's movie is also funny, like really darkly funny and borderline absurdist to the point of being some strange lost work by Franz Kafka (Hazel even mentions she's reading Kafka's [u]The Trial[/u]). You may be so caught up trying to render the complexities of the story to catch all of the humor. The movie exists in a surreal landscape, where the characters treat the fantastic practically as mundane. Hazel's house is constantly on fire and yet none of the characters regard this as dangerous or out of the ordinary. It is just another factor of life. The entire subplot with Hope Davis as a hilariously incompetent therapist is deeply weird. Caden suffers some especially cruel Job-like exploits, particularly what befalls his estranged daughter, Olive. He's obsessed with her hidden whereabouts and European upbringing, to the point that Caden cannot even remember the name of his other daughter he has with Claire. There is a deathbed scene between the two that is equally sad and twisted given the astounding behavior that Caden is forced to apologize for. There are running gags that eventually transform into metaphors, like Caden's many different medical ailments and the unhelpful bureaucratic doctors who know nothing and refuse to divulge any info. Kaufman even has Emily Watson, an actress mistaken for Morton, play the character of "Hazel." This is Kaufman's debut as a director and I think the movie ultimately benefits by giving its writer more control over the finished product. The movie is such a singular work of creativity that it helps by not having another director; there is no other artistic vision but Kaufman's. While the film can feel slightly hermetic at times visually, Kaufman and cinematographer Frederick Elmes ([i]The Ice Storm[/i]) pack the film with detail. Stylistically, the film is mannered but this is to make maximum impact for the vast amount of visual metaphors. [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i] never feels as mannered as the recent Wes Anderson films, henpecked by a style that serves decoration rather than storytelling. The production design for the world-within-a-world is also alluring and imaginative, like a living breathing dollhouse. The assorted actors do well with their quirky, flawed characters, but clearly Hoffman is the linchpin to the film. He plays a character from middle age to old age, and at every step Hoffman manages to infuse some level of empathy for a man routinely disappointed by his own life. The failed yet lingering and hopeful romance between Caden and Hazel provides an almost sweet undercurrent for a character obsessed with death. Hoffman is convincing at every moment, even as a hobbled 80-year-old man, and gives a performance steeped in sadness but with the occasional glimmer of hope, whether it be the ambition of his theater project or the dream of holding Hazel once more. Morton is also wonderfully kindhearted and endearing as the woman that just seems to keep slipping away from Caden. There's no other way to say it but [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i] is a movie that you need to see multiple times to appreciate. The plot is so grandiose is scope and ambition that one sitting does not do it justice. Kaufman has forged a strikingly peculiar movie that manages to be surreal and bleakly comic while also being poignant and humane. This is a big movie with big statements that can be easily missed, but for those willing to dig into the wealth of metaphor and reflection, [i]Synecdoche, New York[/i] is a rewarding film experience that sticks with you. By the end of this movie, Kaufman has earned the merging of metaphor and narrative. I have already seen the movie twice and still cannot get it out of my thoughts. This isn't the kind of movie that you feel warm affection for, like Kaufman's blissfully profound [i]Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind[/i]. This movie is less a confounding puzzle than an intellectually stimulating examination on art, the human experience, and, ultimately death. If people would rather kill brain cells watching whatever dreck Hollywood secretes every week (cough, [i]Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li[/i], cough) then that's their prerogative. Give me a Charlie Kaufman movie and a bottle of aspirin any day. Nate's Grade: A[/color][/font]

• Manu G

  
  Pretty good film and very profound and deep as well. If you like Eternal Sunchine of the spotless mind you'll absolutely like this film. Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady,… More
  Pretty good film and very profound and deep as well. If you like Eternal Sunchine of the spotless mind you'll absolutely like this film. Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, N.Y., is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis, is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counseling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. The years rapidly fold into each other, and Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece, but the textured tangle of real and theatrical relationships blurs the line between the world of the play and that of Caden's own deteriorating reality.

• Aaron N

  
  Caden Cotard: I know how to do it now. There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due. Some buzz words and terms that might come up in this review: Mind fuck,… More
  Caden Cotard: I know how to do it now. There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due. Some buzz words and terms that might come up in this review: Mind fuck, meta, esoteric, frustrating, confusing, sublime, touching. Some of the most unique and interesting films of the past decade have been authored by Charlie Kaufman. Here, he both writes and directs a film for the first time, and it too remains a unique experience, which will be accepted by some as wonderful for many reasons and by others as a frustrating mess. I very much enjoyed the film. Philip Seymour Hoffman leads the cast of character actors in a drama stretching the realms of reality as Caden Cotard, a theater director struggling with his work and the women in his life. This is a complex plot to attempt to shed light on, but essentially, Conrad has relationship problems and some strange health problems. Despite this, he has been given the chance to make his masterpiece of a play, leading to a life devotion to the creation of a play inside of a warehouse, which will encompass a life size replica of New York, featuring a cast of many all performing as people leading their own lives. The film also features stellar performances by Catherine Keener, Dianne Wiest, Emily Watson, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, and Tom Noonan, most as characters within the play. Caden Cotard: I will be dying and so will you, and so will everyone here. That's what I want to explore. We're all hurtling towards death, yet here we are for the moment, alive. Each of us knowing we're going to die, each of us secretly believing we won't Many of the screenplays by Kaufman have always had a meta-type element to them, particularly Adaptation. They have also been fairly esoteric. Its for these reasons that this film can be a mixed bag for some. For me, it felt like something that I could really just toy with in my mind for a while. I'm certainly not the kind of person that will say he "got" everything about this movie, let alone one that thinks that everything has a particular meaning, but I certainly enjoyed wrapping my mind around a lot of the scenes in this movie, and I still am. It certainly helps that Kaufman has hung around director Spike Jonze long enough to have an eye for making a strange enough film look wonderful as well as the use of Jon Brion to supply a touching score and theme. The film is deliberately slow paced, but I still sat in wonder for the most part, because what was presented seemed so intriguing and will only enjoy more elements of it on repeated viewings. Not for everyone, but I found it wonderful. [acting as Caden] Sammy: I've told you before, this is not a play about dating, it's about death. Make it personal, move along. [Caden is trailing behind] Caden: He doesn't need to yell at them. It is a play about dating. It's not just a play about death. It's about everything - Dating, earth, death, life, family, all that.

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