Film Reviews

Synechdoche, New York

• Director:
• Starring: Catherine Keener
• Details: USA / 124mins

PREVIEW




Unsung theatre director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is living his artistically unfulfilling life in Schenecdaty, New York when his wife Adele (Catherine Keener) leaves him to follow her flourishing painting career to Berlin. A rebound relationship with his comely receptionist Hazel (Samantha Morton) never seems to get off the ground, and he finds himself struck by a mysterious illness that is systematically shutting down his autonomic functions. Then, news of a MacArthur Grant allows Caden to happily abandon both regional theater and his personal woes to begin an epic production which he envisions will become a great American masterpiece. But in striving to achieve universality and timelessness, his work is instead at every turn brought back to the mundane details of his inescapable life. Bearing Kaufman's signature narrative and temporal acrobatics, Caden's project becomes an everexpanding replica of his real world, and he begins to disappear into his creation.With this film, Kaufman brings his unique style to the big issues of life, love, death, and art, shedding contrivances and conventional metaphors in favor of a magical realism that only he could make feel so true. Source: JDIFF

Review by bigscreen.ie