I'm Thinking of Ending Things

This was such a struggle to get through, and very unrewarding for doing so.

Since I've read the book, I knew what was going on. I also had no idea what was going on. Kaufman's adaptation was so bizarre and unforthcoming that it had me constantly checking how much time was left (too much was the answer)..

The first 20 something minutes are PAINFULLY slow, and the chemistry between the two main characters is so nonexistent yet they supposedly have this super deep connection. The character of Jake was so flat and mumbly - nothing like the sophisticated intellectual he was in the novel, but I tried to push that out of my mind. I was rapidly losing interest when the two finally arrived to Jake's parent's house, and there was a moment where I truly thought this movie was going to be incredible. Suddenly I was questioning what I was seeing, the unnervingly strange exchange between characters was unsettling and dread started creeping up in my chest. It stirred up the kind of uneasy feelings I got during my first viewing of Hereditary.

I'm a huge fan of strange movies that feel like a bad dream, not a nightmare necessarily, but a dream where things make sense but don't at the same time, and you have a pit in your stomach but don't know why. I like subtle strangeness, enough to pique your interest without beating you over the head with it. Unfortunately there quickly came a point when this movie catapulted over that fine line and became so frustratingly bizarre. It felt like it was trying to be Mulholland Drive. I am all for a strange trip of a movie but it has to be coherent enough to make sense in some way. If I didn't read the book I would have no idea what this movie meant or what was really happening, it just became too ridiculous for me to enjoy.

I presume people will talk about how bizarre it is on social media which will make people curious enough to watch it, but it was so unsatisfying and an overall waste of time.

Sure - after reading the helpful review on imdb that explains the plot, some of the film makes sense. And if you have read the book, Kaufman's surreal approach may be somewhat interesting. If you haven't, this is just a fevre dream that goes nowhere, and is clearly trying very hard to be intentionally incomprehensible. The acting is very good, but that's where the positives end.

Important note: this is not like watching David Lynch at his most weird, where the paranoia is genuine and tongue-in-cheek and the search for meaning a lost cause, but more like a deliberate attempt to confuse the viewer, by withholding information and concealing (WHY) a story that is actually there. And that just feels like vain self-indulgence

Charlie Kaufman channels David Lynch in this eerie, creepy relationship drama that really knows how to get under your skin.

Jessie Buckley, who gave an award-worthy performance in "Wild Rose" last year, does so again here, as a woman meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time. Much of the film takes place in his car, as they travel to and from his childhood home in an Oklahoma blizzard. These scenes give Buckley and Jessie Plemmons, also giving a terrific performance as her boyfriend, long exchanges of dialogue that tease out the dynamic of this particular relationship, and the dynamic between men and women in general, and a dissection of the film "A Woman Under the Influence" (Buckley recites Pauline Kael's review of the film in character as Gena Rowlands), and includes a stop at an isolated ice cream stand, the film's most Lynchian moment, where a girl with a rash gives Buckley a vague warning. Much of the rest of the film takes place in Plemmons' parents house, where David Thewlis and Toni Collette play versions of Plemmons' mom and dad at all ages, from perky housewife to doddering dementia to dying in a hospital bed, and host perhaps one of the most awkward dinners ever to appear in a film. Then there are the scenes set in Plemmons' old high school, where a janitor (Plemmons as an old man?) roams the halls and doubles of Buckley and Plemmons reenact the ballet scene from "Oklahoma!" in the school corridors.

What is "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" about? If that's the first question you ask before deciding whether or not to watch a movie, you won't like this one. I imagine different people will think it's about different things. Certainly it's about getting old. It's also about getting old without the comfort of believing that life has any purpose, or that there's anything waiting for us in the great beyond. It's about women and their relationships with men. It's about Jessie Buckley's character. Until it's not and it's instead about Jessie Plemmons' character, who gets the final scene of the film all to himself, a rendition of the song "Lonely Room" (again from "Oklahoma!") during which he comes to the conclusion that the fantasies on which we build our lives don't exist and we have to take whatever we can to most closely approximate them. It's a claustrophobic and deeply unsettling film, as much because of its aesthetics as because of its enigmatic mysteries.

Is it a good film? I think it's very good, but I will admit that it didn't linger in my head as much as I thought it would while I was watching it. It kind of made my skin crawl in the moment, but it left me feeling like I was going to get all there was to get from it on a first viewing, and it didn't leave me wanting to watch it again to untangle its riddles.

Grade: A

Usually I recommend people to not watch or read reviews, just enjoy the film in their own way. This one, though, is better if you are well prepared for it. It's a two hour fifteen minute film that requires another twenty minutes for the obligatory YouTube video that explains what you've just seen. Foundflix has a nice Explained for it, but watch or read whatever. Because you need to understand you are going to sit through the slow, oh so slow, dissolution of a man's mind, complete with heavy references to books and films and musicals, awkward scenes that make you want to skip forward, long internal monologues, the whole thing. It is also worth mentioning that this film is based of a book, one that is not written by Kaufman, but right up his alley. You might want to check that out before attempting to see the film.

Once you know you are going to see that, you won't feel cheated when finally starting to watch the movie and realizing it will not entertain you at all. Maybe it will make you ponder the nature of reality and inner life, maybe it will make you grab a gun and kill yourself or your parents, maybe it will make you write a dissertation on it, so other people get what you got or at least friends will honor you for surviving through it, but relaxing entertainment or any sort of pleasure that is not purely intellectual you will not get.

There are no twists at the end, the basic premise is made clear rather soon and from that moment you will wait for the film to end. There is no hero journey, no big reveal of information that will guide you through life, no story. The only beautiful thing in the movie is Jessie Buckley. So get into your Dostoyevski reading mood or whatever and only then attempt a viewing. Just trying on a whim and then complaining about it won't cut it. You have to work to see this film. Only when you're prepared to do that work will I recommend it to you.

I may be obtuse, but will please somebody explain, is there a purpose to this movie?