Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Released: 2008
Running Time: 122 mins
Genre: Drama
Estimated Budget: $21,000,000
Estimated Gross: $3,081,925

Director: Charlie Kaufman
Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams

Look up Synecdoche in a dictionary and the definition you will find is 'A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships  or a Croesus for a rich man.'

So basically if you understood that well done, you will probably understand more about the film than I did. As a tribute to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman who passed away this week I decided to get a little more acquainted with his work as I was sadly unfamiliar.
Synecdoche is a head-scratcher for sure, and thats no surprise seeing that it is directed by Charlie Kaufman, responsible for writing such films as Being John Malkovich (1999) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, each fairly difficult films to follow themselves.

The film follows Caden Cotard (Hoffman) a theatre director who believes that he is dying due to many ailments and illnesses he is affected with. It is clear from the beginning that his marriage to artist Catherine Keener is a shambles. She disappears to Germany taking their 4 year old daughter Olive with her early on in the story. Caden is attracted to the woman who runs the theatre box office Hazel (Samantha Morton), she is a woman who frequently turns up during the film and it becomes clear that she is his ideal woman. Caden receives a grant with a large sum instructing him to use it for his artistic endeavours. Caden wants to create a play about life, real and honest, he buys an enormous warehouse and proceeds to re-create New York inside it.

Gathering an ensemble cast he begins to create his play, one of the actresses is Michelle Williams who admires Caden's artistic abilities greatly, they get married and have a daughter but she comes to realise that Caden is far from perfect and completely remote due to his obsession with the play. More and more people are cast, he even casts himself, his wife and Hazel who has come back into his life and becomes his assistant. So close do the two become that reality becomes blurred and one cannot tell what is occurring in Caden's real life and what is in the play, as the actor portraying Caden starts to act out his thoughts and desires instead of the scenes written for him. As the years begin to pass and the world of the play grows extensively, but never shown to the public more doppelgangers appear and the harder it is to follow Caden's thought process. Eventually  it becomes even too much for him and he allows an actress (Diane Wiest) who was playing Adele the cleaning lady to take over being Caden and run the play. Caden himself becomes Adele living out his remaining days in the relatively stress free environment that is Adele's day to day life, with an earpiece constantly giving him his stage direction.

Time is something that stood out to me in this film, you can never tell how much time has passed and neither for that matter does Caden. He is obsessed with finding and helping his little girl Olive, he reads the diary that she left behind and on the different occasions the narrative voice we hear reading the passages are an Olive ageing and experiencing life without her father. But Caden is unaware that the time is passing, he is a very self involved man, whether it is about his illnesses or his feelings or his play, life revolves around matters concerning him, anything else even the passing of time simply go unnoticed.

There are many motifs and hidden meanings in this film all suggesting a bigger picture, what we can take from this is a look at ourselves and the way that we view the world and ourselves and the relationships we engage in. Like Caden in his relationships with the women in his life Synecdoche pushes the limits.

I found this film to be very strange, I struggled to follow it and I have to admit because of this I did not truly invest in the characters or story. But that is not to say that I did not appreciate the complexity and immense achievement that is Synecdoche, New York. You cannot watch this and fail to notice it is a great film whether you understand the plot or not. Similarly you cannot see Synecdoche without admiring the amazing performance given by Philip Seymour Hoffman, there is an incredible amount of dedication and depth gone into creating Caden Cotard and I believe that it was probably one of the greatest performances he delivered and is a fitting tribute to the legacy of amazing work he has left behind for us to enjoy.

Check out this film if not just to see an incredible performance from Hoffman then to see if you can understand a clearly thought provoking and deep movie from Charlie Kaufman. If you get it contact me and let me know.