Synecdoche, New York is a film that is as ambitious as any that I’ve seen. It is not only about the characters it depicts, but it delves as deep into the banalities of life and mortality as it possibly can. It is a film about death, but it is also a film about life. If seen, it will embed itself deeply in your mind and never leave. Some will love it, others will hate it, some will find it just plain impenetrable. I cannot say, after one viewing, that I completely understood and loved every moment, but I know I have seen something significant.
Famed film critic Roger Ebert named Synecdoche, New York as the best film of the decade at the end of last year. I’m sure there are many who share his enthusiasm. I’m just as sure there are others who will despise it. I truly admire this film, but I am not 100% behind Synecdoche at this juncture. There are moments where the endless symbolism gets a little excessive, but the overall power of the film is undeniable. I don’t know if this was the best film of the decade, but it’s certainly one of the most important.
Looking over the plot of this film in a condensed format I realize how much ground is covered in its running time. This film is only about 2 hours long, a completely average length, but it feels much longer. That’s not always a bad thing, as this film proves. Synecdoche, New York covers more than half of a lifetime, the entire time a man must come to terms with his mortality. This film relies heavily on the performance of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who is great as always. Ageing makeup is often the kryptonite of good actors, but here it happens subtly in every scene that it is almost never noticeable, and I bought Hoffman right to the final scene.
The film beings with a middle-aged Caden Cotard waking up in the morning, appearing to be part of your normal movie family. He has a wife, Adele (Catherine Keener), as well as a young daughter Olive. He has just directed Death of a Salesman at the local theater, where he cast younger actors in the Willy and Linda roles. The play is a success, but his wife, an artist, does not have the same passion for the stage. He and Adele go to counseling, but it only adds more stress. Meanwhile, the box office woman, Hazel, obviously has feelings for Caden. He nearly acts on them, but is not able to at that time.
Caden suffers from various ailments, and each doctor sends him to another one. The problems pile on top of each other, and he begins to wonder if he is going to die. His wife and daughter leave him for Berlin, and he searches for his next project. When he gets a letter in the mail telling him he is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. He buys a gigantic warehouse in Manhattan, and his dream project is more convoluted than Pete Townsend’s failed Lifehouse project. Within this warehouse he wants to create a replica of the outside world, populate it with actors and have them recreate the lives of their various characters, all of them real people. Within this warehouse Cotard intends to empty his entire life, and more. He becomes so involved with the project he creates a warehouse within a warehouse, and the casting becomes more convoluted. He loses track of what is real and what is merely a play.
The plot I cannot describe further, because there are no words. The film delves deeper and deeper into the very meaning of human existence, and how it does it is remarkable. This is not an easy film to follow, and I feel it will likely require a second viewing in the future. This is probably a great film, and making it probably required a concentration I could never duplicate. It was written and directed by Charlie Kauffman, who in the past has written such films as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Synecdoche, New York is his directorial debut, and while most writers-turned-directors tend to start with smaller projects, here Kauffman begins with a nearly impossible project. He has certainly specialized in the strange in past films, and here he utilizes it to create a portrait of a man who is simply trying to understand it all through his medium. I suspect this was a project he had been saving for a while, because this is not a script you write in a weekend. If you are able to do so, you should be saving the world somewhere.
Synecdoche, New York cuts so deeply that no two people will see it the same way. It is about pretty much everything, and is an experience. There is nothing wrong with it on a technical level; how one forms an opinion simply depends on whether or not it resonates. Sometimes I found it abrasive, but I was endlessly in awe. This is a film you HAVE to see. Not all will find it an enjoyable experience, but if you deny its ambition or artistic merit then we have a problem.
Rating:
(out of 4)-Ignore this star rating. None can apply. It is a 4-star effort, but I cannot give it 4 stars for I didn't love it throughout. I very well might down the road.
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