Review of Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Keir B — 29 Jan 2010

I feel like I may never be ready to write anything approaching a definitive review or summation of Kaufman's work here. But where I see it now; it feels alive to me, living and breathing with laboured breaths slowly coming to terms with the truth that life is suffering, joyous, indifferent and ostensibly out of control. For me this was the most challenging, profound film of the year and it utterly devastated me.

There are so many touches and directions or stabs at direction that feel like they emerge only to fade. So many that I don't feel I can appreciate or even detect for many years. But I was struck by how truly loneliness hangs in the air.

I adore all the conciliatory gestures and the unabashed romance that drifts around. There are so many beautiful, delicate moments that easily match the incredible heart-ache and brutality. The direction is perfect, in so far as I don't think it is once touched by pretension and never fails to tell the story articulately and honestly.

Of course the performances are unwaveringly revelatory, Philip Seymour Hoffman and samantha Morton in particular.

Ultimately, the film seems gloriously layered, reflexive, funny, bizzare!, surprising, heart rending and frustrating. And I will always favour any film that plumbs such depths and soars such heights no matter how challenging it is.