I’m Thinking of Ending Things

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ½

Charlie Kaufman is one of the most original and interesting writers working in Hollywood today. His particularly odd type of genius runs through all of his films: “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Synecdoche, New York,” and his most recent film, “Anomalisa.” I have loved everything I have seen of his, and some are among the truly great films in American cinema. “Anomalisa” was so visually beautiful and so poignant, and yet totally underappreciated. While this movie is not quite as perfect as that one, it still is very very good. And, true to Kaufman, it is also very weird. It’s filmed in a 4:3 aspect ratio leaving black bars on the sides of the screen and giving it the feel of a home movie. That works both to amplify a sense of wonder in some scenes, as with the beautifully shot snow scenes, and it also brings a sense of crowdedness that amplifies the strangeness and the creepiness that slowly pervades the film. All of Kaufman’s stories are about men battling the existential dread of mortality. Fear of death and loneliness are everywhere in this film. At one point Jake’s girlfriend states, “other animals live in the present, but humans cannot, so they invented hope.” This seems to be at the crux of everything Kaufman is always trying to explore– how we create meaning and belongingness in the face of oblivion. You might be tempted to think that this is Jake’s girlfriend’s story. It is not. It is Jake’s story (after all, he is the only named character). Everything really revolves around him, even while the camera focuses on her. She is played beautifully by Jesse Buckley, the Scottish actress who blew me away in last year’s “Wild Rose.” She is in good company. The other three lead actors include Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette and David Thewlis. Collette and Thewlis are particularly impressive as Jake’s parents. They are such a bundle of anxious, creepy weirdness that they are just the sort of car wreck one cannot take one’s eyes off. There is also satire here, as when we seen the final minutes of a fictional Robert Zemeckis film. Kaufman is acknowledging his rejection of mainstream Hollywood tropes with a wink and a nod. References to film are abundant, as in the giant Pauline Kael book in Jake’s childhood bedroom (she was the long-time film critic for the New Yorker). All of those tropes (along with references to novels and poetry) are hints to the audience of where this film is going. But, even with the hints, the story will begin to baffle you and the ending will give you plenty to debate about. Don’t see this film alone; there is far to much to talk about, marvel at, and be haunted by.