I saw “I’m Thinking About Ending Things”,
the new movie written and directed by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche New York), without reading any
reviews about it. Strange things occurred all over the place. Still I believe I
grasped the basic concept of what was happening. My guess was that an old
janitor at the local high school was reminiscing (and revising) a memory he had
a long time ago when he brought a girl he liked back home to meet his parents
for the first time. I was close. After I saw the movie I read an review/interview
with Mr. Kaufman in which it was revealed that everything but the janitor going
about his day at the school was entirely imagined. There was no memory the
janitor was revisiting. The whole thing was a daydream.
Is that a spoiler? I’m not sure. A
spoiler generally refers to revealing a detail of a plot too early. In this movie,
the basic concept is never revealed. You can only guess at it. Furthermore, I’m
not sure knowing what the concept is will change how you view the movie a
second time. There is much in this movie that is just strange and is hardly justified
by the movie’s concept. There is a dog that appears and disappears randomly, a
mysterious basement that isn’t so mysterious, a dinner meal that is never
eaten. In the third act, the movie delves into ballet and animation. Even now, when I know what was happening, I could not
tell you why most of the strange choices were necessary. They appear to be arbitrary
to me.
This is the sort of argument I
would level against a David Lynch film, but I have also like some of what David
Lynch has done (the Twin Peaks tv show in particular). And I liked the
movie The Lighthouse last year, so strange happenings by themselves are
not a complete turn off to me. However, there is a problem with static scenes
that simply go on too long to be anything but boring after a while. There are
two scenes that take place entirely in a car. Each must be at least fifteen
minutes long and contain nothing but dialogue. Kaufman changes the camera
angle a bunch of times, but that is not enough. After a while one cannot stave off the feeling that nothing has happened for an exceptionally long period
of time.
The concept when finally
understood (I recommend reading articles that explain this movie either before or
after seeing it) is very sad. Apparently, this old janitor never got far in his
love life because he was always so terrified at bringing a woman home to his
depressing farm to meet his weird parents. Even his imaginary girlfriend (here
played by Jessie Buckley, his imaginary self is played by Jesse Plemons) does
not seem to like him. Even though she is a creation of his mind and implanted
with various bits of culture he has picked up over the years (landscape
painting, Pauline Kael movie reviews, his favorite poem), she can’t help want
to end the relationship, thus the title. I can’t help but think of Fight
Club, which was about a man who so loathed himself that his imaginary
friend wanted and proceeded to beat the shit out of him.
I’m not about to tell Charlie
Kaufman to stop being so depressing. (Surely solitary high school janitors
deserve movie as much as anyone else.) However, it may be a good idea for him
to stop directing his own screenplays. His best movies employed such inventive
directors as Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and Michel
Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). They brought a colorful
energy to Kaufman’s writing that is sorely missing from the bland palette of
Kaufman’s own directorial visions (Synecdoche New York and Anomalisa).
Perhaps if Kaufman went back to only writing his movies, he could find more
time to make more of them. I note that Kaufman has only made two movies in the
past decade. That is not nearly enough with someone with so much raw talent.
