Review of Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Keegan W — 11 Jul 2012

Synecdoche, New York is an epic about death.

It centers on the life of Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Caden is a theater director and after aquiring considerable funds and losing his artist wife and their daughter, he starts to create an epic play about (his) life, true and honest.

He grows older and the play develops and stands still at the same time for years and decades while he loses friends and family, people he was supposed to love but never really did (except maybe his daughter Olive).

Caden is a wreck and his medical condition worsens as the film goes on and his play/cast ages and suffers with him. Despite his various (psychosomatic) illnesses it's remarkable that he outlives just about everyone.

Anyway, it's a film full of symbolism, motifs, it's a parable and a synecdoche full of kafkaesque, surrealistic and depressing moments. There are so many different aspects in it, it's a film about life and death, about time, about how we all fight against ourselves and about an individual who seeks redemption and perfection but never realizes that he has to change his focus first, away from himself to others until he himself gets directed.

Synecdoche, New York is incredibly multi-layered and I have to rewatch it soon to get all the symbols. However, interpretation is not my strength. I can just say, I liked it a lot and I was really impressed.

EDIT: Rewatched it now, some months ago and it lost nothing of its strength. I understood more and more of the psychological and philosophical thinking that Kaufman put behind it and beside the obvious Kafka influence I also detected Hegelian dialectic - there's this one scene when the Caden in the play starts to influence the real Caden, this is the point where the play becomes the Synthesis according to Hegel's dialectic trio of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis.

The play thus becomes reality while still being fiction.

I also upgraded it to 100% which is a great honour in my system and, as I supposingly never mentioned it before, want to particularly praise Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance.