Not a masterpiece, but a good film nonetheless. Acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is back on the director's chair to provide a polarizing and enigmatical effort to his legion of fans who won't hesitate to call themselves "cinephiles" at the slightest chance they get.
Of course, not knowing Charlie Kaufman and his writing style will catch casual viewers off guard when they think they are watching a regular film. It is based on Iain Reid's novel of the same name and its plot seemingly deals with a girl who travels along with her boyfriend to his parents' farm. A great deal of the film occurs in the car while they are driving through a blizzard, in which they have long conversations and we also hear the girl's inner thoughts. As the story unfolds, several hints are subtly placed which will eventually reveal a distorted reality that makes the viewer question what is actually going on on-screen.
Before you know it, these hints become aggressively evident, specially when the two finally arrive to Jake's parents' house. After a rather strange introduction, a dinner table scene follows, where it is mentioned that Jake's girlfriend Louise studies quantum physics and that she enjoys painting landscapes as a pastime. The scene shows Jake's discomfort and embarrassment towards his ridiculously joyous mother; and out of the
blue, as his mother goes off-screen and seconds later she returns, her appearance is somewhat slightly deteriorated, oddly enough. More strange
elements are introduced, such as the aging of the parents showing different eras of Jake's life with them, Louise' cellphone ringing and a peculiar voice message, disclosure of camouflaged truths intentionally covered and cryptic encounters at a remote ice cream parlor. All of these details point to underlying meanings and undertones behind the basic plot of the film.
In-between scenes of Jake (Jesse Plemons) and Louise (Jessie Buckley), an old janitor is seen performing his duties at a high school, then also on his break while watching an overexaggerated depiction of love statement in a film directed by Robert Zemeckis (which I found a bit insulting). These scenes are in fact occuring in present time, and the big reveal is that all of the scenes involving Jake and his girlfriend are simply a product of this janitor's recollection of his memories and also figments of his imagination. Plain speaking, the janitor IS Jake, a lonely, frustrated person who is thinking of ending things, which at first the audience is led to believe that the phrase means that Louise wants to break up with Jake, but when the truth comes to light, it takes on a whole new meaning. As a young man, he had prospect and potential but never lived up to his own expectations, he wanted to be a physicist, a painter, a well-read and cultured individual, knowledgeable about the arts; nevertheless, he ended up being a depressed and suicidal underachiever, who wishes that his life could have been different, with his ideal woman by his side and accomplishing the highest personal and professional honor as depicted in the final scene.
Charlie Kaufman does a fairly considerable job behind the camera, slowly and steadily luring us into the surreal recollections of Jake's mind. Once you figure out what is real and what is the meaning behind non-reality events, it is obviously easier to keep track of everything that's going on.
While the narrative is certainly clever, let us not fall into the fallacy of thinking that because a film uses surrealism, hidden meanings or obscure literate quotes recited by heart doesn't mean that it is a masterpiece, or even good for that matter. There's a whole lot of people that seem to be under that absurd misconception. Which is the case for this; it's a fine film, with a good script but rather pretentious and somewhat patronizing at certain passages, especially the car scenes, where for instance Louise gives a grandiloquent review of John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence, which felt pedantic and unrealistic, even if it was a product of fantasy. The dancing scene felt misplaced and quite pointless, and the speech at the end was just too cringeworthy for my taste.
Toni Collette is great as always, so is David Thewlis. I didn't care much for Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons, but their average performances are
compensated by Kaufman's writing.
If you are a fan of Kaufman's work, you will certainly enjoy his adaptation, but if you are unfamiliar with it, you might want to try first other films he has written like Being John Malkovich, Adaptation or Synecdoche, New York (which he also directed), in order to get a real sense of what he is all about. Despite its flaws and its divisive nature, I'm Thinking of Ending Things inspires debate and critical thinking, and that is always a wonderful thing for a film to sparkle.