![]() ![]() ![]() The story ends, tragically, with the janitor’s suicide, revealing the double meaning in the film’s very title.Īll of this is made much more explicit in Reid’s original book, with the voice of the girlfriend (who is never named) fusing with that of the janitor in the final pages, as he/she stabs him/herself in the neck with a wire hanger. Jake’s girlfriend was never actually his girlfriend, just an idealized version of someone he briefly encountered one night at a bar but didn’t have the guts to pursue - or maybe an amalgam of all the “ones that got away.” The whole road trip has been a journey through Jake’s memories, unfulfilled wishes, obsessions and regrets. Kaufman’s film concludes with a revelation: Everything we have seen, from start to finish, has essentially been the mental projection of a lonely old high school janitor who has failed to live up to the dreams of romantic and academic glory he had as a young man. If you haven’t seen “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” we suggest reading this review or this story about the making of the film, then come back. Surrealistic storytelling that bends back in on itself like an M.C. Fantasies, projections, memories and delusions. Explorations of regret, failure and loneliness. “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” bears all of the thematic obsessions and formal daring of Kaufman’s previous work as a screenwriter and director in mind-bending films such as “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation” and “Synecdoche, New York.” Characters trapped in the labyrinths of their own psyches. But where the story goes from there - and where it ends up - involves a whole other kind of journey. That’s how you know it’s a Charlie Kaufman movie.Īdapted from a 2016 novel by Canadian author Iain Reid, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” begins from an utterly simple, even mundane premise: A young couple (Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley) takes a road trip through a snowstorm to visit the boyfriend’s parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis) at their family farm. On a basic level, you may be wondering, “What was that?” You may be perplexed, disturbed, exhilarated or all of the above. ![]() It results in a very abstract but ultimately selfish and disconnected illusion.If you just finished watching the new Netflix psychological thriller “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” chances are you have a lot of questions. and if, as several reviews suggest, you need to read the book to get a grasp on what we have seen, or you will see (never had to read the manual for a film before), that need lays fairly and squarely at the table of the director and writers, who were unable to make a successful and satisfactory transfer. Yes, we can all conjure up coded, clever and complex interpretations on a life distort them to our hearts content - but they need to anchor themselves on something you might reflect on as reality, or we might as well interpret the dreams of pigs to make sense of our own world. I could only conclude this plays out in the mind of someone suffering immense mental torment coupled with severe psychiatric disorders - maybe that was the point! I can watch Jessie Buckley all day and she is outstanding but: the narrative gave me little or no value and you at least need to have something to hang your hat on - the end completely spoiled the experience, what little there was. ![]()
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