My review:
Before I saw Synecdoche, NY, Charlie Kaufman was already my favorite living screenwriter. Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are works of undeniable brilliance, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is flawed (Clooney did alter the script without asking Kaufman), but entertaining, and I haven't seen Human Nature. Now that I've seen Synecdoche, I can say that Kaufman may be my favorite screenwriter, period. This film takes the themes of his earlier work and multiplies them. Those films were complex, but this is a whole new level. By the end, there is art imitating art imitating art imitating art imitating art imitating life (I may have forgotten or added one or two "imitating art", but that's irrelevant). There's a reason Roger Ebert said that this film must be viewed twice to be fully understood.
Kaufman's protagonists are always represent versions of himself (this is, of course, most obvious in Adaptation), and Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in the best performance of his brilliant career) is no different. He is shy, awkward and easily controlled by the women in his life, just like Craig Schwartz, Charlie Kaufman (the character) and Joel Barish. The film begins with Caden, around the age of forty, at home in upstate New York with his wife, Adele (Catherine Keener) and his daughter Olive. His version of Death of a Salesman has received rave reviews, but he has a failing marriage and a useless therapist. He also appears to be dieing, and he allows his health issues to define his life. The only true comfort in his life appears to be his work, despite the obvious affection of two beautiful women: actress Clair (Michelle Williams) and ticket-taker Hazel (Samantha Morton). As his health worsens (his body seems to be shutting down) and Adele leaves him for her art career in Berlin, he receives a genius grant, and starts a new play, a microcosm of New York, set in a massive warehouse. Here the plot gets a little weird (even by Kaufman standards). As the play becomes more difficult and he continues to build and ruin the relationships with those around him, he begins to cast doubles for the people in his life. Much of the films comedy comes from Tom Noonan's role as Caden's double. As life and art (and art within art) and so on merge, life in the warehouse becomes real life, and the same goes for the warehouses within the warehouse. Actors begin to play actors who play real people and every character, from Caden's leading doppelganger to the smallest extra, grows and evolves.
This is a film about life, it just happens to spend a lot of time dwelling on death and relationships. We follow Caden until he's eighty, we see him lose his friends, enemies and loved ones, and, in the end, we see the destruction of his entire world.
Before I saw Synecdoche, NY, Charlie Kaufman was already my favorite living screenwriter. Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are works of undeniable brilliance, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is flawed (Clooney did alter the script without asking Kaufman), but entertaining, and I haven't seen Human Nature. Now that I've seen Synecdoche, I can say that Kaufman may be my favorite screenwriter, period. This film takes the themes of his earlier work and multiplies them. Those films were complex, but this is a whole new level. By the end, there is art imitating art imitating art imitating art imitating art imitating life (I may have forgotten or added one or two "imitating art", but that's irrelevant). There's a reason Roger Ebert said that this film must be viewed twice to be fully understood.
Kaufman's protagonists are always represent versions of himself (this is, of course, most obvious in Adaptation), and Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in the best performance of his brilliant career) is no different. He is shy, awkward and easily controlled by the women in his life, just like Craig Schwartz, Charlie Kaufman (the character) and Joel Barish. The film begins with Caden, around the age of forty, at home in upstate New York with his wife, Adele (Catherine Keener) and his daughter Olive. His version of Death of a Salesman has received rave reviews, but he has a failing marriage and a useless therapist. He also appears to be dieing, and he allows his health issues to define his life. The only true comfort in his life appears to be his work, despite the obvious affection of two beautiful women: actress Clair (Michelle Williams) and ticket-taker Hazel (Samantha Morton). As his health worsens (his body seems to be shutting down) and Adele leaves him for her art career in Berlin, he receives a genius grant, and starts a new play, a microcosm of New York, set in a massive warehouse. Here the plot gets a little weird (even by Kaufman standards). As the play becomes more difficult and he continues to build and ruin the relationships with those around him, he begins to cast doubles for the people in his life. Much of the films comedy comes from Tom Noonan's role as Caden's double. As life and art (and art within art) and so on merge, life in the warehouse becomes real life, and the same goes for the warehouses within the warehouse. Actors begin to play actors who play real people and every character, from Caden's leading doppelganger to the smallest extra, grows and evolves.
This is a film about life, it just happens to spend a lot of time dwelling on death and relationships. We follow Caden until he's eighty, we see him lose his friends, enemies and loved ones, and, in the end, we see the destruction of his entire world.
(Hoffman and Morton in one of the best scenes in the film)
I know I need to see this film again before I can write a proper review (if I have any new insights, I'll edit this), because there were things that I didn't get. Hazel moves into a burning house, a fact that is acknowledged but never really discussed. It was amusing, but I couldn't find the meaning. The end of the film, which slows down because that's how life ends, was really dense, and I know I'll get a new perspective with a second viewing, but for all I can say is this: Synecdoche, New York is the best film of 2008, and it will probably stay that way.
Rating (out of ****): ****
1 comment:
I plan to see "Adaptation" tomorrow for my first time.
I've yet to see ANY of Charlie Kaufman's films, but as soon as I heard about this one ("Synecdoche, New York"), I knew I had to watch it. Your review just built up my anticipation.
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