3/13/2009

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

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"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out."

Stage director Caden Catard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a neurotic hypochondriac. He lives and lives in Schenectady, NY, with dreams of hitting NYC someday. His wife, Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) is a miniatures artist with an upcoming show in Berlin. Just before she is to leave, she tells Caden that she is taking their young daughter Olive (Sadie Goldstein) and Caden is uninvited. Crushed, Caden feels this is just for a time and then they will be back together so he begins work on developing a play because he's been awarded a sizeable grant.

In an effort to stage a play in realism, Caden rents a massive warehouse space and begins to recreate a life-sized section of Manhattan where his actors are asked to live their lives on the set as a celebration of the mundane. The years wear on, the set grows larger, the cast and crew age. Caden developes relationships with other women but one by one ruins them in one way or another. And his health woes continue until he is an old man.

This is a very strange tale of pushing the limits and seeing if there is a meaning of life.

Others in the large cast include: Michelle Williams, Tom Noonan, Samantha Morton, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jerry Adler, Emily Watson, and Dianne Wiest.

Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman.

Run time: 2 hours, 4 minutes

Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity.

My personal rating: C+

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