Though some secrecy subsides as the film reaches its resolution, Kaufman effectively eschews any elaborate explanations of any kind throughout the film’s entire runtime, instead exploring emotions through visual displays of derangement. I could specifically summarize the entire “story” of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and yet, I’m not sure that this would make Kaufman’s latest chronicle any “clearer.” In fact, I would rather argue that this ambiguousness is the “point” of the plot overall. David Thewlis as Father and Toni Collette as Mother in I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX) Unfortunately, upon arrival, the two become trapped at the farm after a snowstorm strikes, causing undisclosed tensions to rise to the surface and forcing the young woman to question not just her feelings for Jake but her entire perception of her identity as well. Despite having doubts about the future of their relationship, the “Young Woman” agrees to take a trip with Jake to visit his mother (Toni Collette, of Hereditary and Knives Out) and father ( David Thewlis, of the Harry Potter series and Wonder Woman) out at their old family farm. Based on the 2016 novel by Iain Reid, I’m Thinking of Ending Things concentrates on the cold connection between an unnamed young woman ( Jessie Buckley, of Wild Rose and Judy) and her boyfriend, Jake (Jesse Plemons, of FX’s Fargo and Game Night). In 2020’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Kaufman is adapting another’s work for the fourth time in his career (following the aforementioned Adaptation., 2002’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and 2015’s animated Anomalisa), while additionally trying his hand at writing within the psychological horror genre. to his introspective investigation of a theater director’s delirium in Synecdoche, New York to his riveting review of a relationship in decay in his 2004 magnum opus Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman has continually pushed beyond the boundaries of the film medium as a whole with his opulent originality and infinite ingenuity. From his meta musings on adapting Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief in 2002’s Adaptation. Though his enigmatic examinations are occasionally a bit too “obscure” for some audiences, Kaufman remains one of the most inventive and intriguing innovators in Hollywood, putting out projects that other artists wouldn’t dare attempt to bring to actualization. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is sometimes too esoteric for its own good, but it remains entirely engrossing the whole way through.Īfter first making a name for himself in mainstream cinematic culture with 1999’s brilliant and beguiling Being John Malkovich, the sharp-witted screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has spent the past two decades offering up offbeat and outstanding odysseys that probe the human psyche and skillfully survey the state of the human existence.
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