The Play’s the Thing

I’m a Charlie Kaufman devotee, so I will let him off the hook for giving his directorial debut a title that will send most folks scrambling for a dictionary. And, this review will be brief, because there is little that I can say to sum the movie up. It’s plot is ingenious and bizarre and watching it is like being inside the brain of a crazy person (in the best possible way). But, I also think that it will polarize audiences. Synecdoche, New York is not nearly as accessible as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – and those ain’t exactly mainstream.

For me, the film is about obsessively dwelling in the past instead of living in the moment. Life is finite and opportunities that are unseized may be gone forever. Others will no doubt glean something else. Kaufman has filmed a dream and it’s open to interpretation.