Review of I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) by Mattbrady99 — 25 Sep 2020

I loved the movie. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen all year. A poetic and beautiful movie in the strangest of ways. A movie that can be interpreted in so many ways but can convey the same emotional gut punch is unique beyond words.

The performances from everyone were all excellent. Jessie Buckley as The Young Women, and Jesse Plemons as Jake, both gave the best performances of their careers and of the year. Both manage to bring every type of emotion that made every scene feel so extraordinary.

Toni Collette and David Thewlis were fantastic as Jake’s parents. Just from their mannerisms and coo coo characteristics made them instantly memorable.

The cinematography, score, writing, editing, and the sound work were nothing short but impeccable. I love how the shots and framing makes the overall setting of the movie feel so limited. Almost like it is coming from one’s imagination and memory of such forgotten places. I love the gentle and whimsical score with a little touch of sadness.

Now I will be getting into spoiler area, as I will be analysing certain scenes and my own interpretations. 1.) The Young Woman (Jessie Buckley) is a projection and embodiment of Jakes life. The Young Woman likes poetry, science, and painting. At one point she shows Jake’s parents her paintings on her phone, but the father doesn’t like them. However, those are Jakes paintings and later when the girlfriend goes down into the basement, there are oiled paintings in the corner, same ones on her phone. Another example would be throughout the movie her shirt kept changing colours because she exists only in his head, and he kept making small mistakes on the persona he created.

I think the reason why Jake did this is because he thought that by placing his interest and hobbies onto this woman that he created in his head, then maybe there might be a spark in their chemistry and hopefully become that “happy” couple that the movies lied to him about. This is the reason why the conversation at the beginning of the movie between the two felt so forced and awkward, which the movie straight away gives you a hint that something is not right. When we start to learn that these are in fact Jake’s, it removes itself from her, and her interaction and mood towards him changes very much. The movie quite literally pulls an Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ on us, when we thought the main character would be the woman, but it was him the whole time. On a second re-watch it becomes much more clear as the camera seems to linger on Jake more. There is a scene where she recites a poem called "Bonedog" by Eva H.D., and halfway through she breaks the fourth wall and looks straight at the camera. Now she is not addressing the poem to us, but towards Jake, as his own subconscious is destroying his fantasy by bringing in a little reality.

2.) The dance scene towards the end I believe represents a “what if” scenario for The Janitor (Jake) if he would have just talked to her when he first saw her. Maybe both of them would fall in love and have a perfect life together. It just shows you how magical their love could have been. But then The Janitor kills the youthful self that he wished he were. You know, the one who got the girl and lived a happy life. At this point in the movie, he has come to terms that he cannot keep living in his fantasy. So, The Janitor killing young Jake meant that reality has finally hit him, and he finally accepts that things will never be the way he imagined it.

4.) During the musical climax of the movie, Jake sings the musical ‘Oklahoma’, we see everyone in the audience with a couple of familiar faces, who have that powered white face make-up you see in theatre productions, with that comic book lines draw on their faces to represent facial features, which makes them all look old and ghostly. Everyone there was someone he knew in the past. It's like in the TV show ‘The Leftovers’, where Nora (played by Carrie Coon) says that returning to old places to recreate old nostalgic feelings and memories won't be the same, because everyone there has either moved on or left. In the end, you are just a ghost from the past. Let me tell you something about myself. Sometimes whenever am free and nearby, I would come and visit my old college. However, these visits became more often. When I first started college, there was this small park next to my college, and I would use to sit at a park bench in my first year on my first day, because I had no one to talk and I was too shy. It was a scary time to be independent when you have no hopes for the future. Years later, I went back to that same park and sat down where I use to sit to feel a sense of progression from where I started compared to now, but I felt nothing and after two minutes got up and left. So, my trips were pointless but every time I tell myself I will feel it again someday. Maybe some good memories will come flooding back.