Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Synecdoche, New York is the fourth major feature from writer director Charlie Kaufman. Little did I realise going in that I was about to experience Kaufmans most complex work to date and that’s saying something.
It is a fantastically ambitious work which sets out to kind of implement a quantum view of the mundane, multiple universes of experience, all partly reflecting each another; repeating with slight variations on the theme each time.
The wow moment here was the realization of just how far our main protagonist Caden was taking his struggle. I started to realize that perhaps the underlying narrative wasn't even real; that everything in movie could've just been part of his grandiose reenactment of his New York. No genius grant, no wife problems etc.; just an ultra obsessive artist searching for pure art and finding that only real life offered that ‘essence’ that he needed to calm his feverish appetite for realism and truth.
Another idea that also struck me at the time was that perhaps his psychosis had been brought about by the death of his daughter, wife, marriage or all three. I know we are presented with a plausible narrative near the beginning but you really have to wonder whether or not this is just another part of his macroscopic play given that the chronological order of events gets somewhat thrown about half way through.
Even though we see him dealing with his German speaking daughter on her drug soaked deathbed near the end of the movie, I think the scene is a metaphorical representation of the culmination of Caden’s worst fears about his daughter’s progress under the patronage of his wife’s oddball assistant.
Because Caden’s ambitions (and theatre!) seem to grow unfeasibly large as the movie continues I got to wondering how of much of his replica city we were shown from the offset and because events which were suppose to represent the underlying narrative, were also being replicated in his grand theater I had to question what, if anything, was real - which in the end lead to me the idea that perhaps this is exactly what Kaufman is inspiring in his audience. The ultimate point might be therefore that the gravitas we extend to natural existence might just be an allusion and an all the more cruel and ironic one at that, considering the intensity and suffering we all endure from time to time.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman is probably the only actor around who could pull this off but each and every one of the supporting cast is also flawless. The movie is merciless in it’s pacing and relies heavily on Kaufman’s editing; which I think has been extremely done; as it is a brave decision to a gently mess with your audience, in particular with those elements of overlapping time, as you risk losing them altogether, but he just about keeps it together albeit demanding an intense concentration from the viewer.
In this reviewers humble opinion this movie will go down as masterpiece of modern film making and will eventually resonate in the annals movie history as one of the most thought provoking and high brow art pieces ever to come out of America.
It's quintessential struggle for meaning in madness and endless references to those constant themes of death, rebirth and sexuality whilst underpinning all the while the whimsical triviality of existence make it a must see for anyone interested in shedding some light on their own existence.
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