Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Synedoche, New York (2008) 2/10
Synecdoche: n. A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword). — American Heritage Dictionary
I don’t understand Synecdoche, New York. Directed by Charlie Kaufman, you know that this film will be one of those WTF movies. You either get it or you don’t. I don’t get it. Which makes the film a slow, boring and uninteresting film about a gloomy disenchanted character. The only saving grace is that that character is essayed brilliantly by Philip Seymour Hoffman and the rest of the cast is talented. But the script is labyrinthe, complex and oftentimes does not make a wit of sense. Yes there are themes of fiction blurring with reality, the existential angst of life blah blah blah. But the film is so mystifying and the plot so boring that it all doesn’t matter. The film alienates most viewers who will be bored to tears. But it is bold, it is crazy and the whole film is one big mindfuck. Meaning some people may actually love it. It is impossible to hold a neutral view: either you think it is bold transcendent film-making or pretentious navel gazing.
Personally, i hated it.
“To say that Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now. That at least would be an appropriate response to a film about failure, about the struggle to make your mark in a world filled with people who are more gifted, beautiful, glamorous and desirable than the rest of us — we who are crippled by narcissistic inadequacy, yes, of course, but also by real horror, by zits, flab and the cancer that we know (we know!) is eating away at us and leaving us no choice but to lie down and die.”- Dargis, New York Times
“What a pretentious piece of garbage from a writer/director I don’t particularly care for. Charlie Kaufman expects the audience to care about a man who doesn’t care about himself, let alone the people around him? “- IGN
