Synecdoche, New York

So, last night, I watched Synecdoche, New York, my fourth movie in four nights. This movie, was released just last year, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and written and directed by Charlie Kaufman. This is Kaufman's directing debut but he has written such gems as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my favorites), Adaptation, and Being John Malkovich. Therefore, if you have seen any of these films, you should not expect any semblance of normalcy out of this film.

For those of you aren't in AP Literature, the title may not be significant to you. The action of the film opens in Schenectady, New York but the title is actually Synecdoche, New York. Now, synecdoche is a literary term which means "a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole." So that does give some clue as to where the movie is going.

This movie was very thought-provoking, but also indescribable for the large part. If anyone has seen it, I believe they will attest to it. The film certainly had an interesting concept and brilliant writing, but it was also very strange, and in my opinion, it tried too hard to be original but it certainly was very good.

A main problem that I had with the film is that it was only 2 hours long and yet, I felt like I had been watching the films for months and it would never end. I do believe that was part of the filmmaker's strategy and his message but the film definitely dragged at points.

However, like Citizen Kane, and other films, this was a very teachable film and there were symbols in every scene that were significant. Watching the film with my brother, allowed me to have a thought-provoking discussion on several elements and ideas that the film expressed. It is certainly a film that will stick with me, and one that I will try to understand and comprehend, because at this point, the thoughts were so complex that I have not been able to entangle all of the wires.

Without giving away many details, the film revolves Philip Seymour Hoffman's character, Caden Cotard, a playwright, who becomes a MacArthur fellow is contracted to create a play for the betterment of society and mankind. He is given a gigantic warehouse in NYC to use as a stage for his play. As part of his play, he attempts to build a life-size replica of NYC inside the warehouse and the remainder of the film concentrates of human interaction, the meaning of life, and several other philosophical elements.

Particularly, there is one brilliant, philosophical line of dialogue, which is one of my favorite that I have ever heard. But since it is the crux of the film, I will not tell you what that line is, and instead leave you on a cliffhanger and force you to see the movie.

Despite the slow pace of the movie, the movie was extraordinary in its attempts to portray life and the way that it is filmed also adds an extra element to the story, and allows the setting to take on a character, almost a main character of its own. If you want an movie to escape from life, this is not a film for you, but if you want to think deeply on the nature of life, I will recommend this film highly. I apologize if I leave too many cliffhangers in my posts, but I just don't want to spoil them, but instead give you a reason to see the film.

Synecdoche, New York, is another film that I think is worth seeing and is a film with some many filmmaking elements to learn from that I believe that it may become a classroom film that it taught across the country in a few years. I could be wrong, though. But this is a very well done, clever, and interesting movie, and I will certainly suggest it.

Also, as to my assertion, that it is a teachable film, according to IMDB, it recommends that anyone who enjoyed this film should also see Citizen Kane, so therefore, I guess I am not alone in that belief.