Review of Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Brendand — 03 Apr 2009

When the history of Charlie Kauffman is written, this film is bound to be the one, like David Lynch's "Lost Highway" or Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," that divides audiences more than any other one.

The plot is non-linear, the actual story contrived, and the direction almost like a poor-man's Jonze a la "Adaptation." Yet each of these elements is another metafictional facet of a truly sensational film.

Once again, Kauffman proves he is smarter than most of the movie-going public. It's not a knock-off of French cinema (if anything, it has far more in common with German melodrama and Japanese comedy); nor is it anything like Kauffman's previous films.

Instead, we're offered a script that is the literal representation of what is happening to the character. That's why, if anything, this has more in common with Jane Austen's "Emma" than any of the other things name-dropped here; it is structured to put its audience through the same thing its central character goes through.

Now, you can like that or hate it, but failure to recognize that fact is the failure to understand the film itself.