Review of I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) by Legitsalt — 06 Sep 2020

With his latest work, Kaufman demonstrates his prowess as a writer. Kaufman shows that he can simultaneously stay true to form to deliver another excellently written screenplay while also breaking from his previously established standards and signature touches to provide an experience that is inwards facing and self-aware. I'm thinking of Ending Things does so much during its run time and is so incredibly nuanced and original. It is repeatedly breaking new ground and delivering bewildering and perplexing experiences, ones that force the viewer to examine the deeper layers of the text they are consuming. The film itself is openly deceptive and obtuse, giving the viewer an experience that doesn't easily digest. From an obscured genre to recurring patterns in speech and themes, the movie is dead set on making the viewer work for their enjoyment. And what do they get out of it? Self-exploration, uncanny characters and deliveries, and of course, some degree of entertainment. I'm Thinking of Ending Things shows us what it looks like when someone is not the main character in the story they are living. One of the film's biggest enigmas is the identity of the main female character, whether she be Lucy, Lucia, Louisa, Yvonne, Amy, or Ames doesn't matter. It could be that the "Young Woman," as she is credited, is not one singular person but a rapidly changing manifestation of another entity's thought stream. The Young Woman's story changes throughout the movie, that of her love life and that of her passions. She goes from a quantum physicist to a poet to a painter to a film critic. She simultaneously meets Jake at a bar and a Diner, while also never really meeting him at all. We watch as her story forms based on the stimuli present in the film's world. She writes and recites an original poem, and yet it is already transcribed in the tome of a little boy's room. She meets Jake while serving as a waiter, serving him a burger, reflecting the story of a movie playing on the tv the janitor watches. She reveals that she is an emotionally charged landscape painter, only to find that Jake has long since produced similar content. The young woman inhabits the world of the film as much as the viewer's mind. She isn't static because she is a product of the film's environment, and that environment is progressing.

The title of I'm Thinking of Ending Things is as much a double entendre as any Kaufman screenplay. The film is as much about the thought of ending an imaginary relationship as it is about ending a real life. The last act is where the movie reveals its conceit. The janitor, with whom various scenes have been interspersed seemingly at random, is who Jake truly is - the Jake we see, played by Jesse Plemons, is a mental projection. The Young Woman is a girl he once saw and smiled to at a bar. He was too immobilized by fear to take action at the time that he has now taken to extrapolating her internalized her thoughts, presuming the worst possible scenario. The janitor can't help but imbue his own reality within his fantasy, thus why we see his shirts in the drier and why Jake speaks about the school as if he has been there for a long time, watching as the world around him changes. I'm Thinking of Ending Things is about the fruitless journey of living life through our exaggerated fantasies, failing to move on from our failures, and getting stuck in our nostalgia. Jake's parents are constantly shifting through time, yearning for the past, the time of Jake's exceptionalism, dreading the future, the unknown, yet being unable to live in the present, to experience what is in front of them for what it is. Jake's dad is too focused on his understanding of art and painting that he cannot accept either abstract art or emotional landscapes being valid. Jake's mom is too overwhelmed by her son's achievements to see that the story she has been telling about him is fragmented and fundamentally flawed. The Young Woman, the projection of the janitor, is thinking of ending things because she has been with Jake for too long already, seven weeks. The Young Woman is growing sick of Jake and wants to end the relationship, but the janitor is growing sick of Jake and wants to end Jake. The reality is crumbling because the janitor can't deal with himself anymore and is projecting his evolving complaints onto the world and the Young Woman.

But the movie is also about how we view and understand time. Yes, we can dwell in the past, and yes, we can dread or anticipate the future, but we must also learn to live in the moment. Through living right now and taking the initiative, it is possible to arrive at a happier future. One where we don't need to project our anxieties upon others and one where we don't need to become romantically invested for long-standing satisfaction. You may be thinking of ending things, but you should also think about starting new ones.