Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Director:

Charlie Kaufman

Writer (WGA):

Charlie Kaufman (written by)

Release Date:

5 February 2009 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Plot Keywords:

Play | Theater | Warehouse | Director | Actress

Awards:

5 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Philip Seymour Hoffman	...	Caden Cotard
Catherine Keener	...	Adele Lack
Sadie Goldstein	...	Olive (4 years old)
Tom Noonan	...	Sammy Barnathan
Peter Friedman	...	Emergency Room Doctor
Charles Techman	...	Like Clockwork Patient
Josh Pais	...	Dr. Eisenberg (Opthamologist)
Daniel London	...	Tom
Robert Seay	...	David
Michelle Williams	...	Claire Keen
Stephen Adly Guirgis	...	Davis
Samantha Morton	...	Hazel
Hope Davis	...	Madeleine Gravis
Frank Girardeau	...	Plumber
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Maria

Also Known As:

I synekdohi tis Neas Yorkis (Greece) [el]
Kis-nagy világ (Hungary) (DVD title) [hu]
Sinédoque, Nova Iorque (Portugal) [pt]
Sinédoque, Nova York (Brazil) [pt]
Sinegdoha, New York (Croatia) [hr]
Synecdoche, New York (France) [fr]
Synecdoche, New York - Todas las vidas, mi vida (Argentina) [es]
Synekdocha, New York (Czech Republic) [cs]

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:M | Czech Republic:15 | Norway:11 | Sweden:Btl | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:15 | Finland:K-11 | Ireland:15A | Singapore:M18 | Portugal:M/16 | Mexico:B15 | Japan:PG12 | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Likely Story

Trivia:

Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Near the beginning when Olive asks if she can watch television before school, Caden picks up the remote and turns on a television with rotary knobs that would not have remote control functionality.

Quotes:

[over radio]
Millicent Weems: What was once before you - an exciting, mysterious future - is now behind you. Lived; understood; disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone's experience...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Watchmen/Shuttle/12 (#1.2)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Song for Caden

to call it a disappointment might almost be a compliment, but I dare you to see it

Charlie Kaufman is... I almost have trouble filling in the gap there. Over the course of my teenage years I've seen Being John Malkovich through Eternal Sunshine (those two the M-word, masterpieces, with Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind near-great, and Human Nature a fun minor work), and he's always given something to chew on for the brain. He's an incredible wit, maybe too incredible, like something that could combust with the amount of ideas and ruminations and skill at defining what's important to us as people and what we want out of art. Synecdoche, New York could be seen as his life-summation of what concerns him as a writer. And to call it art is simple, because it is: it is, alongside something akin to Inland Empire, the most challenging work to come out of independent American cinema recently. To say that either one is flawed may come as something as a given, but for Kaufman it's somewhat more troubling.

This is a big film of ideas, crucial, life-affirming (or life-damning) thoughts about love and death and loss and forgiveness and, essentially, the process of trying to recreate and recreate and recreate this. But at the same time the intellect was engaged full-tilt by Kaufman the writer, the director couldn't engage me as a viewer emotionally. This could very possibly change on a second viewing - I'm reminded of Woody Allen's assertion on multiple viewings of 2001 that Kubrick was much ahead of him on what he was doing - but on a first impression I have to wonder, with everything going for Kaufman the satirist, the original, the sad dramatist, what the movie's audience really is. Like the play that is rehearsed for decades that Cotard never brings to his audience, what can one take away from Synecdoche, New York as far as connecting with the characters, or just Cotard?

Maybe it reveals something about me just talking about this; indeed this is probably the film of the season, if not just the year (Dark Knight fanatics take note), that you will want to talk about after it ends. As far as puzzling works of art go it's great for a good argument, especially if one is familiar with how Kaufman's work has been leading up to this point. It's not exactly that the film is ever so confusing that one will want to walk out - there is a logic, in a sense, to the life imitating art imitating life imitating art etc etc aspect that makes sense. But there has been, I would argue, something about films like 'Malkovich' and 'Spotless Mind' where Jonze and Gondry, amid the chaos and craziness of the plot and absurdist situations, gave us actors and characters *depicted* as such to want to really feel like there's a journey taken.

When Kaufman, as director, makes his film this time about as hopeful as Franz Kafka re-watching the Zapruder film on a loop, even the scenes and moments that *do* feel somewhat powerful emotionally (i.e. Hoffman seeing his daughter in a nude-booth, or the final scene on the bed with Hoffman and Morton old and in bed) don't hit their mark. Again, this could be just a first-reaction and if revisited, like any work of art at another point in one's life, it could change. Certainly the cast makes it worthwhile to watch: Hoffman is what he is, brilliant at transforming physically as age goes by as Caden Cotard, and at delivering subtle moments of humor amid his health-decay; ditto in her own right to Morton, who ranges from bubbly and lustful to angry and dejected (Michelle Williams, too, shows this range); even a bit part by Dianne Wiest is appreciated. They all help to give life to what is a big, somber meditation on (quoting Douglas Adams) Life, the Universe, and Everything.

And yet, expressing my disappointment over the length (at 124 minutes it feels twice as long) or the music (did Kaufman order "kill-myself-piano-tunes-you'll-love off of ebay for this?) or the personal problem of connecting emotionally with the characters, shouldn't, I hope, diminish recommending Synecdoche, New York for anyone who wants something to challenge them, provoke thought and discourse, to engage and disrupt brainwave patterns. Perhaps there should be some disappointment; like life, and the art pulled out of it with pliers, it's not always a pretty sight. But it is a unique journey I was glad to take, most of the time.