Film Review

Synecdoche, New York Review (2008)

By Kyle Stephans

I have always displayed an enduring respect for Charlie Kaufman. Despite having mixed feelings about his earlier works such as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), about the supposed double life of game show host Chuck Barris as a CIA assassin and Anomalisa (2016), a stop-motion animated drama about one man’s existential loneliness and self-discovery. Kaufman may not make the most entertaining films, but they are completely different from anything else released into theatres. So I was pumped to see Synecdoche, New York (2008), (pronouncing the title can me a choir in of itself) and intrigued. Imagine my reaction after the film concluded and having no idea what the point or reason for its existence other than torturing the viewer. Besides the talent involved I have no idea how this received funding and expected that the film failed at the box office (The film flopped very badly).

The movie is about Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a theatre director who strives to create his own personal play rather than restaging Death of a Salesman. He is having marital problems with his artist wife Adele (Catherine Keener) and suffering from numerous physical ailments that no specialist can identify.

His life begins to unravel when his wife takes their daughter Olive(Sadie Goldstein) to Berlin for her Art display. Cotard receives a McArthur Fellowship Grant that allows him to stage his personal magnum opus play that he has yet to write. He begins an affair with the box-office clerk Hazel (Samantha Morton) and eventually marries an actress in his play he is directing named Claire (Michelle Williams) and has a child with her. As the years pass Cotard’s play grows bigger figuratively and literally with a cast of hundreds, a plane hangar for a stage, countless sets built, and the life of Caden presently being rehearsed in the theatre with actors portraying him and his family in their daily lives.

This movie is all over the place. It has no idea if it wants to be a comedy or drama, as the film begins with a comedic tone that it carries for about twenty minutes straight. Then it delves strongly into hardcore drama and sadness, then intermediately goes to comedy from time to time. The protagonist sadly never gets a break. He is generally a caring man who is devoted to his daughter and former wife, but is repeatedly rejected by both of them. Nothing ever works out for him, he can never catch a break, and constantly falls short of his goals. I cannot understand why Kaufman developed such a nihilistic setting for his main character unless he wants to turn the underdog story on its head and display the grim reality of loneliness and despair.

Reality ceases to exist in the universe that Kaufman has envisioned. Time and logic seem to have disappeared. For example Hazel buys a house that is eternally on fire, reasoning "I like it, I do. But I'm really concerned about dying in the fire," which prompts the realtor to respond "It's a big decision, how one prefers to die." Or Olive to age 14 years in only several months and then appear to Caden varies ages throughout the film. If anything can happen and there is no structural arc how can the audience possibly follow this film. For me the movie could have ended at any moment and it would not have mattered or changed anything.

With a cast this talented it is a shame they are wasted on meaningless and thankless roles. Philip Seymour Hoffman is forced to act meek and pathetic as his life is thrown into turmoil. Catherine Keener appears in the first twenty minutes to make Hoffman’s life miserable and then disappears. Samantha Morton sticks by as a loyal assistant to Cotard, while Michelle Williams gets precious time as Caden’s neglected second wife. Hope Davis’s therapist character and Emily Watson can be completely eliminated and it would not affect the film in the least.

Spike Jonze was originally set to direct, but backed out to make Where the Wild Things Are (2009). He was able to channel and control Kaufman’s bizarre visions into the genius that was Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2002). Sitting through this is a choir and I am sure that you could do countless other things with your time. Kaufman was commissioned to write a horror film by the studios and this was the script that he produced. He stated that this would be his idea of the scariest thing that can happen to you, but did he have to show us. So skip it, its about as welcoming as a fart after a dinner of Indian Curry and countless beers.

Final Grade: F