Review: I'm Thinking Of Ending Things

Image courtesy of Netflix.

"It's good to remind yourself that the world is larger than the inside of your own head," says a character in Charlie Kaufman's equally fascinating and maddening new film, "I'm Thinking of Ending Things," based on the novel of the same name by Iain Reid. But by the end of the picture, one might ask oneself whether that's true at all. What's to say that one's interior life - or a fantasy one concocts and makes true in one's own mind - isn't any more real than the, as one character puts it, "objective reality" we all face day to day. Or, as Keanu once put it, "whoa." 

The film often plays like a horror movie, even though it's not exactly that, and it doesn't reveal itself until its final moments, although I was able to figure out what was going on fairly early in the film. That didn't ruin any surprises for me because part of the pleasure - and frustration - with Kaufman's third film as a director is figuring out how everything will be pieced together - sort of.

The film opens with a 20-minute sequence during which a young woman (Jessie Buckley), whose name is occasionally Yvonne and sometimes Lucy and later Amy, travels through a snowy winter landscape with her boyfriend, Jake (Jesse Plemons), on the way to meet his parents - played by Toni Collette and David Thewlis - who live on a farm in Oklahoma. At one juncture, she ponders why a brand new swing set is sitting in the yard of an abandoned house.

While en route to the farm, Lucy (or Yvonne or Amy) thinks to herself that she might dump Jake - "I'm thinking of ending things," she says to herself - and it's almost as if Jake can read her thoughts. Are the thoughts Yvonne (or Lucy or Amy) is thinking her own - or did someone put them in her head? 

During one of the many discussions between the young woman and Jake - which cover everything from David Foster Wallace and Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" to the use of the word "wow" and whether "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is "rapey," but also include an odd sequence in which Yvonne (or Lucy or Amy) regurgitates Pauline Kael's review of the John Cassavetes film "A Woman Under the Influence" and passes it off as her own thoughts - the concept is brought up that every person is many people. In other words, our own personalities are made up of other's opinions. When we argue about the quality of, say, a book or movie, we often pass other's thoughts or arguments off as our own. Where do all of the movies, books, theories, political positions, art works and music that influence us end and where do we actually begin?

Once we arrive at the farmhouse where Jake grew up, we are firmly in David Lynch territory. After Jake regales the young woman with a disconcerting story about a pig infested with maggots and she notices a series of scratches on the door leading to the basement - which Jake seemingly doesn't want her to enter - we finally meet his parents, who strangely get younger and age rapidly as the night wears on. Collette takes her performance from "Hereditary" one step further, continually breaking into uncomfortably long and forced laughs, while Thewlis repeats stories over and over.

After Yvonne (or Lucy or Amy, sometimes referred to as "Ames") convinces Jake to head back home - it is, after all, snowing heavily outside - they take part in another long conversation behind the wheel, this one seemingly more bleak and dour than the one at the beginning. They stop at a small ice cream parlor, where the young women attending the counter behave strangely, and then finally arrive at Jake's old high school, where he claims he wants to get rid of the cups holding the ice cream, which are dripping on his car.

By the way, I haven't yet mentioned that throughout these entire proceedings, we continually cut back to a lonesome looking janitor, who sweeps the floors of a high school and occasionally sits mournfully in front of the TV - during one particular oddball moment, he watches an absurd rom com that culminates with the credit sequence "Directed by Robert Zemeckis." Later in the film, the acceptance speech from "A Beautiful Mind" is regurgitated and there are several scenes in which songs from the musical "Oklahoma!" are performed.

What in the hell, you may ask, is going on? Eventually, we find out - although, as I'd mentioned, my guess about the janitor's purpose proved to be correct - and the finale gives perspective to the entire endeavor. Kaufman has long been considered one of filmdom's most creative - and unique - screenwriters. His screenplays include the brilliant "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." In all three instances, his words were utilized by filmmakers with vision.

His directorial work has been a little less successful, although there are many who'd disagree with me. Many found "Synechdoche, NY" to be brilliant, but after two tries I could merely appreciate its vision, without actually finding myself that moved by it. "Anomalisa" was better, but still not as great as the films adapted from his screenplays.

"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" is, at least in my opinion, his best directorial work yet. At times, it feels a little overlong, and its finale - which is supposed to be its emotional crescendo - disappointed me, although I could appreciate what it was trying to do. For me, it was a matter of execution failing a good idea. That being said, the film gave me much to chew on - certainly more than can be expressed in the form of a relatively short review like this one. "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" is a challenging movie, and one that is sure to put many people off. But appreciators of surrealism and films that challenge one's notions of self and time, while playing with themes of regret and the influence of art, might be fascinated by this movie.