SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
Directed by Charlie Kaufman
The best tribute that I can give to Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut is that I know someone who slept through the film, and claimed to have woken up extremely (and inexplicably) sad. Kaufman’s the sort of writer who can get into your head, and with SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, he proves that he’s no slouch as a director either. His control of mood and tone, even as the story spirals out of control suggests that his earlier scripts, for Adaptation or Being John Malkovich (which fall apart somewhat towards the end) would have been better served had he helmed, rather than Spike Jonze. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a towering performance as frustrated playwright Caden Cotard, and he’s more than ably supported by Catherine Keener, Tom Noonan, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis and Emily Watson. It’s a beguiling, bewildering and beautiful film, powerful and fragile almost in the same frame, and one well worth investigating.
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