Review of Synecdoche, New York (2008) by Hunter D — 21 Jan 2010

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK is a film I'll just gush about, so the less said, the better. It's easily Charlie Kaufman's best work, it is dense, but not overwhelming (as long as you keep an open mind anyway), it's challenging, and never pretentious, though people tend to confuse the two, hence a lot of the negative reviews it was subjected to.

Truly great films are ones that bloom further over subsequent viewings, providing a richer experience each time you see it. Having seen SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK twice in one week, I can say that the second viewing was even more rewarding than the first.

Kaufman has also created a story that can only be conveyed through cinema. That is not to say that this is so because of some technical achievement, Kaufman's scripts in the past have been adapted by technical wizards like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, however SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK is rather simple by comparison to, say, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND.

Many films use the tools necessary to convey and enhance the story they want to tell, however it seems that Kaufman has created a story that requires the medium to be properly told. A lot of directors concern themselves with capturing reality, and some concern themselves with capturing perception.

Kaufman deals with the latter, as the film is filled with the main character's ideas of himself, as well as those around him. Reality has nothing to do with it, as Kaufman's work deals almost exclusively with the mind and the projections it creates, but here is where he deals with those themes in the most beautiful and poignant way possible.

If you saw SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK once and didn't click with it, see it again, it's a movie that demands more from the audience than most, but it's also more rewarding that any big-budget trash you wouldn't think twice about wasting money on (hey, I'm guilty of it too).