a little town in upstate new york

no.48 Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman will walk and I will follow. Although, this time, I did get a little confused ;( Wish I would have written this like ten days ago when I watched it. Thinking real hard... This film is amazing, but also difficult, you've got to work for this one. Normally, Kaufman's films are easy to me, but this one I had to stop and regroup.

The story spans fifty years, it's what they called "applying dream logic to reality." Caden (Phillip Seymore Hoffman in yet another brilliant part) is a director, mediocre at best, who steps out to make the greatest project ever, commenting upon life, the most brutal and honest ever, most literally, starting with just his basic everyday and becomes about the neighbors, and the neighbor's neighbors. He moves the project into a warehouse, which starts this massive warehouse with a warehouse with in a warehouse to contain "the project". I can't imagine the continuity for this film - ten times worse than LOST!

I think I remember Hoffman saying something about this being Kaufman's vision of a beautiful but crumbling world. Hazel's house is on fire, she's lived in it for fifty years. What does that say about her state of being and crumbling?! Caden seems to be a man overwhelmed with sadness, a sadness that continually disappoints him, as if he expect more. He's also obsessed with death, which continually seems to allude him. The whole plot line with his daughter is this close to being off the charts. Although, the dying Olive, the petals of her flower tattoos literally falling off her skin? That was nothing short of brilliant.

Definitely a film you've got to watch a couple times over. I will rent again, but not until I plow through a huge list of must sees. Great cast - Catherine Keener taking another swing on Charlie's merry-go-round.