I’m Thinking of Ending Things
I’ve just finished watching Charlie Kaufman’s I’m thinking of ending things for the third time, and the damn thing has me in its clutches.
Kaufman’s films, “Inside John Malkovich,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Adaptation” etc., have always been a challenge — linear, literal narrative is not his thing. But this one’s level of ambiguity and allusive story-telling is something to behold!
Kaufman tells us how to view his film from the very beginning: The opening titles are set in tiny type that practically forces you to get closer to the screen to decipher them.
In short, watch closely.
On its surface, I’m thinking of ending things is a story about a young man and woman driving through an Oklahoma snowstorm to visit the man’s parents; their dinner together; and the couple’s return back through a roaring blizzard. Kaufman does provide signposts along the way to indicate there may be an alternate reality at work here.
E.g.: what’s with the parents growing older, younger and older in one evening? who’s this old, school janitor who keeps popping up? And why on earth the pas de deux in the school halls? Some of these clues may offer some enlightenment, others may prove downright impenetrable, at least they were for this viewer upon first screening.
In fact watching it for the first time, I was alternately intrigued and ready to turn the damn thing off. But I was curious enough to want to learn more, and so headed for Google and some spoiler alert stuff. I read a couple of explications, including one by Kaufman himself. When finished, I had two feelings:
One, that I was a complete idiot, the other, that I had to watch it again, armed with my new knowledge.
The second time I watched it, I was so taken in that I had to share it with my wife the very next day.
I’ve purposely omitted other details to give you your own pristine shot at this cryptic, metaphoric madness, and to decide whether or not you’re intrigued enough to sit through it again.
Many critics feel that Kaufman’s mind-bending movies are a kind of self- absorbed preening of his intellectual prowess. There may be something to that, but I think it’s more about his desire to plumb the subterranean nature of things. Things that conventional narratives simply are not up to.
Early in I’m thinking of ending things, the young woman says in voice-over, and I paraphrase, that maybe our thoughts reveal more about us than our actions, which are often influenced by a plethora of outside influences.
Movies, being infinitely plastic and dimensional, can reveal our thoughts and subterranean realities like no other medium.
And no one taps their full potential better than Charlie Kaufman.