Synecdoche, New York Movie Review

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

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Written by: Charlie Kaufman
Directed by: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Tom Noonan, Jennifr Jason Leigh, Paul Sparks
Rated: R
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Plot
A theater director struggles with his work and the women in his life as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Verdict
I'm not even sure what I watched. It's fascinating and captivating, yet I wonder what is it? Is Caden shielding himself from the real world by creating his own reality?  Are we in his head as he recreates and relives all these moments in his life? The movie is his anxieties made tangible. He wonders if he's dying, and he wants to create something great, throwing himself into his work. Caden's goal is something real, and as he focuses on what's happening in his warehouse as life passes him by. Through manufacturing reality, he ignored the world. This is a movie I'll puzzle and wonder about for at least the next few days, hoping I can decipher what it's really about. What does it mean? It's the intersection of life and art and how those mix and react. It's Caden exploring his life through his art.
Watch It.

Review
Nothing is going right for Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman). The sink breaks, he hits his head, and ends up in the ER for stitches. From there he's sent to an ophthalmologist and in turn a neurologist. Caden is a theater director, anxious over his play Death of a Salesman. Was he always so anxious, or are the doctor visits and a potential diagnosis the cause of it? His choice to cast younger people in the play as the audience realizes they aren't old enough to have reached that point of despair in their lives is praised.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener play Caden, Adele

His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) creates miniature paintings, which is odd. Then we see Caden's assistant Hazel (Samantha Morton) buying a house that's actively on fire. The movie has jumped into strange with both feet. Does the house represent the chaos of her life, or how the only way she can afford a house is one with severe issues?

Caden's therapist pushes her own book on him, charging him for it too. His wife leaves him, and his life seems like it's falling apart. He obsessively tries to clean his basement, but to what end? Is it the same thing as trying to clean up or fix his life to no avail? Caden goes home with Hazel, who has a crush on him. Neither of them comment on her house that's constantly on fire. Is it a physical manifestation of a world that's burning down? Then Caden gets a MacArthur Fellowship. He wants to earn it, making something real. That's ironic as plays are inherently a facsimile. His therapist tells him about a book written by a four year old indoctrinated into a supremacist group that died at five. That's a lot to live up to. This is wild, some kind of magical realism with these oddities that no one acknowledges. It's either a metaphor for reality or how characters perceive the world.

Caden goes to New York, finding a warehouse in which to stage his "real" play. He's starting by basing it on his life. His own world is continually ending, is that the anxiety of a director or his concern for his own future? He starts by casting Claire (Michelle Williams) as Hazel. At this point I don't know what's real or if anything has been real. Reading his therapist's book on the plane, it tells him to look left and the therapist is sitting beside him. It seem like this movie is past reality, but I don't know at what point we left that behind. Even near the beginning there was the constantly burning house. What does it mean that fantasy and reality blur?

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton play Caden, Hazel

With his play, Caden continues to add scenes and characters. Hundreds of people play parts of his life. This movie is Caden's insecurities borne to reality. His play represents this unwieldy thing that no one can grasp but him. He's created this lofty goal that can't be achieved. Throughout this, his body falls apart. At one point we see him reading his daughter's journal, but we know he doesn't have it as the passages are written after she left the country. There's no way she could add to it if she left it behind, and no way for Caden to have it if she took it with her.

I don't know how one even develops this concept. It's so complicated and layered that it's genius or seems like it. Making it seem genius is just as creative. Plenty of movies try hard and lose the thread. Being genius or fooling me into thinking that are nearly the same. Creating art can be all consuming, and we see the physical manifestation of that.

Caden has been working on this play for seventeen years. There's a divorce from how much time he says has passed and what others say. The outside work is deteriorating, but he's focused on creating reality; all of these versions of him, his life, and what could have been. These scenes are variations of his life. He's hoping to get it right, but it doesn't change. He can't get it right in reality or when he writes it. The play has become a safe haven that shields him from the outside world that seems to have problems. Eventually he's cast as a janitor in his own play, trying to clean up the messes of his life. Is a janitor his destiny as he's unable to achieve the success he seeks? The play operates autonomously with an actor playing his part. He's an observer of his own work.

Emily Watson, Samantha Morton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Noonan play 
Sammy lookalike, Hazel/Tammy, Hazel, Caden, Caden/Sammy

This play is his life's work, but life passes him by. He's dedicated himself to a still unfinished venture and he's missed so much. This concept is so dense, nebulous. "Everyone's a lead in their own story." He's tried to create this reality, his version of it. He does this to avoid what happens outside. The world and Hazel's house is on fire, and no one seems to notice. Caden keeps stating he knows how to do the play now, but he's saying in part I know what will make me happy. I know what will give me joy, and that keeps changing. Happiness is an elusive target.

His play keeps getting deeper. Now an actor plays the part of the actor playing him. Caden plays the part of a woman playing the part that was playing him. How do you not lose yourself in this? The movie and thus the play are a quest for meaning. No piece of art is truly finished. Sometimes you just stop, with no deadline Caden keeps building. This concludes with Caden having yet another idea of how to do the play.

It's a movie I want to watch again after seeing it unfold the first time. Is this about an artist's life or creation? Does life influence art? It could just be a representation of how all consuming trying to create something revolutionary can be. Caden devotes his life to his creation, getting lost in it and never actually producing anything. The movie could be all of those things and none of them.

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