Featured Audience Ratings

• 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"!

• Louis R

  
  Convoluted, dense, indefinitely self-referential and just searingly intelligent and truthful. It is hard work to an extent- a bit of a Ulysses of cinema. Doesn't quite meet Eternal Sunshine's backbone and emotional punch, but perhaps even more so marks out Kaufman as a… More
  Convoluted, dense, indefinitely self-referential and just searingly intelligent and truthful. It is hard work to an extent- a bit of a Ulysses of cinema. Doesn't quite meet Eternal Sunshine's backbone and emotional punch, but perhaps even more so marks out Kaufman as a frantic, understated, peerless filmmaker, and one of the very best of our generation.

• Sam B

  
  "Synecdoche, New York" is, by all accounts, the nightmare world of Charlie Kaufman's mind. Both writing and directing, Kaufman's inner psyche is so unhinged that the result is a film so insane, so overambitious, so all-reaching and meta that its impossible to not… More
  "Synecdoche, New York" is, by all accounts, the nightmare world of Charlie Kaufman's mind. Both writing and directing, Kaufman's inner psyche is so unhinged that the result is a film so insane, so overambitious, so all-reaching and meta that its impossible to not be amazed by it, but its easy to be frustrated by it's all-consuming , baffling, abstract, fragmented wholeness.

• 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.

• Emil K

  
  Synecdoche, New York is one of those films where we can see director working his head up so deep into his own ass that it just makes everything seem like a intellectual nonsense. This is example of a film where unexperienced director takes his own ambitious idea and tries to make it… More
  Synecdoche, New York is one of those films where we can see director working his head up so deep into his own ass that it just makes everything seem like a intellectual nonsense. This is example of a film where unexperienced director takes his own ambitious idea and tries to make it something larger than life, while resulting a horrible two hours of crap. In many ways this is typical for Charlie Kaufman who has long worked as a writer for directors like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze. At least Jonze succeeded in creating something interesting from Kaufman's story for Being John Malkovich. Gondry also made wonders with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's mind-bending screenplay. Here Kaufman has stepped into director's shoes also and it is clear that he has not what it takes to handle this kind mammoth story. End result is highly annoying and sloppy piece of filmmaking that finally adds up to nothing. I often admire directors who are taking risks with their material, but in here it just did not pay off.

• 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.

• Devon B

  
  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.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings