The meal looks delicious, yet the evening is interminable. Cindy’s voice-over muses on how we may not move through time time, perhaps, moves through us. We see Jake’s parents in varying stages of age and frailty, then see them young and spry in vintage fashions. Jake’s mood is quiet, though he has angry outbursts. They’re overjoyed Jake has “found someone,” intimating that he’s never really had a girlfriend before. She meets Jake’s parents (the always-wonderful Toni Collette and David Thewlis) and they’re polite but strange. As Cindy reflects on her discomfort, she keeps glancing behind her and has odd flashes of memories, like déjà vu. The remote farmhouse is about an hour’s drive and the snowstorm keeps growing heavier. But, out of politeness and a sense of duty, she decides to go through with the dinner. She finds him unknowable on many levels, and questions why she’s even dating him. Cindy lets us know early on, via voice-over, that she’s thinking of ending things. Jake ( Breaking Bad’s Jesse Plemons) is bringing his girlfriend Cindy ( Wild Rose’s Jessie Buckley, known only as “The Young Woman” in the credits) to meet his parents for dinner. The framework is prosaic: a young couple who met in graduate school are taking their relationship to the next level. I’m Thinking of Ending Things, for which Kaufman wrote the screenplay based on Ian Reid’s novel, once again serves up a story that sees memory as a sort of filing system. I find it’s very hard for me to watch his films more than once their endings have left me breathless or groping for words. Even when adapting other peoples’ work (Susan Orleans’s The Orchid Thief for Adaptation), Kaufman imbues his films with intricate neuroses and visionary cadences that feel both extremely personal and yet universally familiar. Stories of love gone bad that can never be forgotten ( Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), love that is mired in illusions ( Anomalisa), a life filled with precocious ambition and wasted time ( Synecdoche, New York), a life that isn’t what it seems to be on the surface ( Being John Malkovich). This is a rare experience in cinema to be savored, or at the very least highly valued.ĭirector and writer Charlie Kaufman is no stranger to probing the depths of emotions and urges that fill us with deep fear, shame, or longing. You may not know what you’re feeling or what to think about what you’ve seen afterward. Especially if you’re in your 50s, or your 40s, or your 20s, or your 60s. Perhaps with a friend, partner or furry compatriot by your side. You will sit on your couch or your comfy chair, with your snacks and beverages nearby. Driving on a snowy evening in I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |