Synecdoche, New York

"Synecdoche, New York"
Charlie Kaufman, 2008

The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has always delved, to an unusually poignant extent, into how troubled individuals attempt to deal with their losses. His primary technique involves externalizing his characters' interior troubles so that they pervade all aspects of the film, from the dialogue to the visuals – in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” for instance, the lovesick protagonist's world literally collapses around him. Kaufman's directorial debut, “Synecdoche, New York,” is a continuation of his fascination with fucked up people, and it goes to an even further extent than his other films to externalize its protagonist's troubles.

Our protagonist, who is named Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is a playwright who is running out of fresh ideas, and whose life is beginning to collapse: every announcement on the radio has a melancholy tinge, Caden first looks at the obituaries upon receiving a newspaper, and the bathroom sink randomly explodes in his face while he is in the midst of shaving. Meanwhile, his wife (Catherine Keener), a miniature portrait artist, does not love him anymore – she cites that there is “no life” in his latest play – and leaves him, taking his daughter with her. What follows, then, is – once again – a bizarre journey through our protagonist's internal state as he reconciles with his troubles.

“Synecdoche, New York” is a challenging film, because, more-so than in Kaufman's previous work, it lingers predominantly within Caden's deteriorating mental and emotional state, which manifests itself onscreen. (Caden suffers from a series of bizarre bodily ailments, including bloody pee, strange bumps on his arms and legs, and random seizures.) One day, when the playwright receives a large grant to make a new play, he decides to build his set within an enormous warehouse. He slowly builds up a miniature version of New York; and the set becomes a storage area-of-sorts, a place that allows him to compartmentalize the various aspects of his life. In essence, it becomes the staging ground for our protagonist's struggles, a la “8 ½.”

The primary focus, in “Synecdoche, New York,” is on how a man deals with the prospect of deterioration and, ultimately, death. (“We're hurtling towards death's door,” Caden intones to his actors.) Kaufman, once again, exhibits his unique understanding of what makes humans tick, brilliantly alternating between the nuanced – a quiet dialogue exchange simmering with tension – and the conspicuous – a lover's house is, hilariously, always on fire – and always with an original, off-kilter sense of humor. What the film is lacking, though, is focus. The second half of “Synecdoche, New York” completely abandons narrative coherency for a muddy and episodic journey through Caden's perception of his world. This abandonment of narrative for complete immersion into the protagonist's world has occurred in Kaufman films before, but they always led to a carefully constructed endpoint. This technique does not really work in this film, though, because the pacing shifts arbitrarily, from the relatively fast-paced sequences of the film's first half to the torpor of the second half.

At the end of a soliloquy, an actor, playing a priest who presides over a funeral, says, “Well, fuck everybody! Amen!” This brief sequence is telling: it's a succinct summary of Caden's frustrations with his life, but it also indicates a lack of confidence on the director's part regarding how he should effectively organize and wrap up all of his ideas. As it stands, many parts of “Synecdoche, New York” are brilliant, but, in the next film that Kaufman directs, he is going to need a better grasp on his larger narrative, on how to more effectively control his pacing, and on how to better focus his numerous ideas.

Rating: 7

With regards to the Q & A...

After the movie ended, I looked to my right and, sitting five feet away, was none other than Charlie Kaufman, staring right at me. It was very disconcerting; perhaps it had something to do with me looking like a reviewer, since I was taking notes during the film.

Kaufman is a very short, scrawny guy with a prominent Jew-fro. He is not a comfortable public speaker, and he was surprisingly churlish, going so far as to say that his studio basically forced him to be here. He was reasonably courteous, but he strongly disliked the requisite, artsy, bullshit questions that people at the event asked. I asked how involved he was in the visual process of his films, and how it was different with this film since he directed it - his laconic reply was that he made notes about what he wanted the film to look like in his script and communicated that to his DP and set designers.

One interesting thing about the film is that he purposefully cast all the actresses to look very much alike, which certainly added to my confusion during the film's second half.

This is a film that I'd like to see again. I don't think that it's Kaufman's best work - it's far too aloof and convoluted to achieve the emotional connection that I had with "Malkovich" or "Eternal Sunshine" - but there are definitely some brilliant aspects at play.

First Viewed: 10/6/08, in 35 mm projection - IMDb