SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
RYAN: I am so looking forward to this review because it’s for a film you asked me repeatedly to see with you, but I insisted I wouldn’t and I think I’m not sorry. What’s it all about?
CAROLINE: It’s called “Synecdoche, New York” and it’s the Charlie Kaufman directorial debut starring one Philip Seymour Hoffman who you may have heard of.
RYAN: [laughs’]
CAROLINE: And the odd thing is, I can’t say if it’s bad or it’s good. I can tell you that I slept through a good portion of it. It’s a very soothing, relaxing film.
CAROLINE: Well I was tired, so in its defense, it wasn’t that it totally sucked. I just happened to not get enough sleep the night before. But it’s just a slow, quiet film about Phil Hoffman’s character and his miserable life. It starts out linear, establishing his marriage and his child and then it spirals into one of the weirdest things you’ve ever seen; which we’ve come to expect with this director – he’s the guy who wrote “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Being John Malkovich” after all.
RYAN: I can sometimes appreciate abstract film-making, but I heard this one was over-the-top strange; like, hard to understand.
CAROLINE: It’s completely bizarre. Time and place are conflated to the point where you don’t even know what year it is or how much time has elapsed.
RYAN: I heard people say they couldn’t even tell if Phil Hoffman’s character was supposed to be alive or dead during part of it.
CAROLINE: He grows older while others around him don’t; but some characters age too. There’s one scene where he says, “It’s been a week.” And another character says, “It’s been a year. You need a calendar.” And you don’t know which one is right.
RYAN: Did Phil give an Oscar worthy performance?
CAROLINE: No. I mean, he’s always amazing. But it’s such a slow, weird film that I can’t say it has Oscar appeal. I appreciated it, but I was obviously bored enough to fall asleep. It really made no difference though. You could sleep through a good chunk of it or stay awake and still have no idea what’s going on.
RYAN: Wow.
CAROLINE: And it’s a star-packed cast. Everyone and their mother is in it: Hope Davis, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh…
RYAN: That’s a lot of names.
CAROLINE: Plot-wise, there are some interesting things in it for Phil’s character. He’s basically made his life into a play in this enormous warehouse that he’s built to look like the town where he lives. There’s a play on words with Synecdoche and Schenectady. There are some neat parts of the film where you think it’s interesting; then the rest of it, you’re just like, “Eh. I have no idea what’s going on. I have to take a nap right now.”
RYAN: Hilarious. What’s your bottom line?
CAROLINE: If you’re a Charlie Kaufman fan, check it out. Otherwise, you’ll be just as mystified as the rest of us.