Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York”

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Fellini’s 8½ as a temporal, impressionistic representation of life, death and regret which weaves moments of tenderness and melancholy into a tenuous whole

Led by a glowing Philip Seymour Hoffman with an extraordinary entourage including Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, and Tom Noonan, it plays like an impressionistic living painting of a crocodile with massive scales but in a shape nothing like a crocodile but with a terrific singing voice. If that doesn’t make sense then this film may not be for you.

It does require investment and a certain degree of “letting go” to get the most out of this but even so it doesn’t feel quite as sharp as Kaufman’s earlier collaborations with Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry or his latter directorial work I’m Thinking of Ending Things. The tone and tempo vary wildy and there are scenes that would have benefitted from Gondry and Jonze’s visual inventiveness. For example, there’s a house that is perpetually on fire in which people live but its portrayal is somewhat flat visually despite the idea being terrific.

Hoffman is terrific as theatre director Caden Cotard facing a mid-life crisis of sorts as he deals with paranoia around his health and growing distance between him and his painter wife Adele(Catherine Keener). While Adele’s works shrink and become more successful, Caden’s bloat to fantastic proportions and slowly die. Other people come into his life, the narrative of his life-size play or both with Hazel(Samantha Morton) being the most significant.

It’s a bit of a frayed tapestry with some beautiful moments, a storm of ideas and a great cast which will appeal on some level to existing fans of Kaufman’s work but will likely alienate everyone else.