Review of Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Michael C — 28 Mar 2010

A found this film to be ambitious on a somewhat daunting level, and at times the surrealist imagery steered the movie in a direction that made it lose focus. However, overall I thoroughly enjoyed the movie because it is a film filled with rich, large ideas and some strong performances as well.

As for the general plot of the film? It is hard to really say, and that is one of the bizarre charms of the film, but here are some of the concepts I got from it. The overall arch of the film seemed to echo the classic Shakespeare line "all the world's a stage".

For Philip Seymour Hoffman's central character, every television show, newspaper article, piece of art, random stranger walking across the street, and so on and so forth is some element directly reflecting his life.

And in some ways isn't that true of all our lives? We are merely the main character in our own massive play, making relationships with ours (our supporting cast), moving from location to location (our expansive set) and cultivating our emotional response based on that experience.

And yet when the character tries to make a play reflecting its life, no matter how personal he tries to make it, it will never accurately reflect his own life. This seems to echo the deceptive nature of all theater in general, and how even the landscape of one's life can be altered and distorted when repeated for others.

These are just a few of the concepts I felt the film explored, but there are several more here, and at some point I think revisiting this film would be an interesting journey. Charlie Kaufman continues to write some of the most engaging, original, and intelligent screenplays in Hollywood.

Now, I did think this was the weakest directed film adapted from his work, and I am curious how Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry would have approached the same material and if the parts that aren't as cohesive would have been more approachable under different hands.

But lets not begrudge Kaufman his fair credit; this was a fascinating movie to me and Kaufman continues to stimulate my mind in a way few writers these days can do.