Synecdoche New York Review- Attempt #1

“No one is an extra. They are all leads in their own story”

This is one of those films that grabs you about 5 days after you watched it.  Right after you watch it you’re saying to yourself (or a friend)…… what in the world was that?

Like “Adaptation” and “Being John Malkovich“..it’s a bit of a mind trip. What can I say? Charlie Kaufman likes to take us the long way up the mountain so we can stop and see the mountaineers and the folk singers at the local pub. You know…get a really good feeling about life, and the gritty flour in the stale baked bread, served on the broken pine table. While you are at it, throw up a few pints of sour pale ale and argue with the biker to give your wallet back. Only, he throws it at you and it hits you over the head causing you to believe that you should never wear those hideous shorts anymore. If an ambulance were to come rescue you, they would laugh at your shorts.  Meanwhile your car is stolen by a flimsy bar maid who you end up having an atrocious affair with. You miss your meeting and end up dead in a ditch with red paint all over your body.  Confused much?

So we’ve got Caden Cotard (Play Director) played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and his wife the lovely Adele Lack (pun intended) (artist)played by Catherine Keener.  Michelle Williams, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samantha Morton, Emily Watson and Dianne Wiest round out the cast.

Caden has a few severe issues: he’s a hypochondriac who manifests horrible rashes and leg twitches for at least half of the movie.  I think Kaufman puts this in to emphasize the psyche’s constant presence and manifestation in the physical world.  Now, times that by a thousand….

His wife is no longer inspired by him and their relationship fell off the cliff a few months after they got married. Caden’s new play (a remake of Death of A Salesman) is a decent hit…enough to get him a HUGE grant….for a VERY long time.  Adele leaves for Europe taking his beloved daughter with her in order to pursue her incredible art career- which by the way is unique and creative. She does these mini portraits painted on tiny little pieces of canvas that you have to use a magnifying glass to see.  I love it because it’s the complete opposite of Caden. In other words,  Adele loves the details but can’t see the bigger picture of what’s she’s doing to her family.  Neither can Caden even though his issues have taken over the world.

In larger terms, Charlie is pointing out that everyone in your life- no matter big or small…..means something to the finale. Every extra matters- in fact NO ONE IS AN EXTRA. The magnifying glass is also a precursor to the evolution of Caden’s next large project. Essentially he builds a huge tiny canvas of his life. He inspects his life. He challenges it for the ultimate meaning to somehow cure his pain or blind it with the biggest award and recognition an artist can receive.  Adele tells him “at some point everyone disappoints you”…

Caden builds an entire stage of New York City within New York itself  and takes up a few city blocks.  He constantly films real life scenes-millions of them- in an attempt to find meaning in the mundane.  Caden films every scene of his life as if he was watching a movie since his birth. When he gets to present day, he continues to film every scene as it happens- even finding actors to take roles that were just discovered a few hours before. It’s quite an operation because Caden’s life is also quite complicated. By this point he’s been with a few women.. and had a couple kids. Phew. It’s kind of a brilliant idea, right? Confusing but really interesting. Sometimes i wonder if I filmed certain scenes in my life—-if I would change things or be someone different.

No one sees the play. You think to yourself…my god. How much money did he spend on a psychological experiment gone awry?  How come NO ONE can see this play?  Because it’s real life…It’s like that part in Spaceballs where they watch themselves on the VHS Spaceballs the movie tape. “This is now now…”..”Go back to now”..”I can’t”..”Why?”..”Because it just happened now”.

It’s an INCREDIBLE work of art..this life of Caden’s…that he’s not enjoying..but simply watching.  He’s watching his own life second hand completely removed from it. Pretty nifty eh?

The NY set inside the city is actually phenomenal looking. It’s breathtaking and shocking to see someone’s life spread out in buildings and scenes…one on top of the other. These are complete remakes of the exact apartments and places Caden’s life unfolded at.  How big would yours be?  How many people would it need to recreate?  I was reminded of  “The Truman Show”.

There are a few points about the film to make: 1. Caden never finishes his masterpiece. 2. Caden tinkers with the play so much at first that it THEN becomes his life….taking on every new scene to try and make it better and better…and better.  3. Everyone’s lives converge on their own and play themselves out how they were supposed to-no matter how much time passed in between act 1 or act 50.

Synecdhoche means: accepting the part as responsible for the whole. Seeing his life in parts coming together to create a life.  Charlie named it this to describe the unveiling of the parts of life to reflect upon the whole.

For creativity, dialogue, great plot, brilliant cast….I’ll give this an A-. For the brainscrew that is Charlie Kaufman—- well..what else do you expect?