Friday, December 19, 2008

Re: Synecdoche

To think I almost banished this to the "wait for video" list. As Miranda Priestly would say, "Thank God somebody came to work today."

And I would thank Charlie Kaufman too, for this absolutely bewildering, difficult, hysterical, and frankly painful film about the end of life (not just main character Caden's, but the entire human race). It scared the hell out me, even when I was laughing despite my grimaces and sharp inhales of breath, two hands over my mouth.

I wonder if Kaufman has read the work of George Saunders, because this is exactly how an adaptation of that writer's work would play out. It also reminded me of Margaret Lawrence's The Stone Angel, another demanding and taxing work about the slow degradation and breakdown of the human body. For the first time (in a long time), I'm tempted to write about this one in greater detail. Stay tuned.

How are you all doing at the movies? Use the comments section.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! I'm so glad this turned out to be great. I think I'm set to see it tonight, finally, now that I'm back in a city where I don't have to drive 45 minutes to get to a worthwhile movie.

I've been doing alright at the movies. Over the break, I saw Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road, Doubt, and The Wrestler. The first and last of these were fantastic (I was so taken by Mickey Rourke's performance), but everything else was a disappointment in one way or another. Still, there were some good performances scattered around, such as Viola Davis's show stopping work.

How have you felt about performances this year? What has stood out to you?