I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Written for the screen & Directed by: Charlie Kaufman
Streaming on Netflix.
The title 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' in itself sold me the film - because we know that it's deeply introspective. Although, this movie doesn't start like a crazy mind fuck Charlie Kaufman film, Synecdoche, New York starts right away like that and we are prepared for it throughout the film. This film is normal for the first 40 mins or so and then the screenplay gets high on coke. This film is just like abstract art, you don't exactly understand what everything means but it evokes a lot of feelings, including confusion.
I resonate with Charlie Kaufman's voice probably because of his intimate storytelling, in a scene in the car in the beginning we see immersive sound mixing - where she is lost in her thoughts and he is interrupting her line of thought by speaking to her. There couldn't have been a better way of going into someone's head. The opening montage sequence with voice over, also achieves a similar impact. The whole sequence at their house, has a color palette and texture which stands out. There are long conversations in the film, they are snappy, banal, repetitive and it feels like he is using every tool and technique in writing out there and also breaks all of them at the same time. In this film, you can't even predict the next shot and the next dialogue - forget the next scene. Sometimes, we hear extremely normal responses and normal things happening, and sometimes the normalcy also feels weird. We wonder, why nothing weird is happening.
I had to read post analysis articles about the possible intended interpretations and it felt good and bad. It felt bad because I wish I could get that while watching the film, or maybe the film was slightly accessible - but it felt good because it was a good experience for me even without understanding the plot because I resonate with the intimate storytelling and after understanding what was happening, a lot of things fell into place.
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