'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' Review
R: Language including some sexual references
Runtime: 1 Hr and 55 Minutes
Production Companies: Likely Story, Projective Testing Service
Distributor: Netflix
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Writers: Charlie Kaufman
Cast: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis
Release Date: September 4, 2020
Despite second thoughts about their relationship, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) takes a road trip with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm. Trapped at the farm during a snowstorm with Jake's mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis), the young woman begins to question the nature of everything she knew or understood about her boyfriend, herself, and the world.
In a time where most people are experiencing existential dread from staying at home as the world burns before their very eyes, it was only fitting for Charlie Kaufman — who specializes in telling stories about characters facing their own existential problems — to return with a new feature that deepens our pits of emptiness. Based on the hit novel I'm Thinking of Ending Things, the film follows an unnamed woman and her boyfriend Jake as they venture out on a road trip through a snowy terrain to meet his parents.
As simple as that premise may seem, you have to remember you’re watching a Charlie Kaufman movie. He wrote Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Adaptation, and Anomalisa, to name a few. If you’ve seen any of Kaufman’s previous works, you know that nothing is what it seems. He incorporates dialogue where characters psychoanalyze themselves and the situation they’re in, puts his characters through uncomfortable emotional isolation that his viewers can resonate with, and provides thought-provoking commentary on the futility of mortality. All of these things are present in Ending Things, but they’re masked by psychological horror. It’s a straight-up madhouse that will make you mutter, “What the fuck?” ever so often. While most of Kaufman’s prior works are straightforward in storytelling, this one requires the activation of a few brain cells.
Ending Things feels like it's Kaufman’s response to the term “elevated horror” and his attempt at dipping his toes into the pool. This is Charlie Kaufman™ elevated horror. From an atmospheric perspective, he certainly nails it. With the framework and set designs — everything from the interior of Jake’s car to his parents’ house — Kaufman overwhelms you with anxiety. It’s like watching a visual puzzle play out and as each piece is slowly put together, you get a few hints about what the larger picture is. At first glance, you might not be able to grasp the entire puzzle. Sometimes you can’t even tell whose perspective you’re watching the film from. Kaufman constantly fucks with you as effectively as the novel does.
Most of the shot composition features the characters with some sort of physical distance between each other in order to complement their emotional distance. The intricate detailing that went into the set design also adds another layer to the mystery. Aside from the shot composition, the camerawork often plays around with the vacant spaces to create an offbeat sense of dread in a crippling “breaking all sense of reality” way. As the leads drive to and from the house, they’re in the midst of a raging blizzard in the dark, which is just as stressful as it sounds. Ever drove down from Park City to Salt Lake City in the dead of night during a blizzard? Mix that dreadful setting with the philosophical — and sometimes awkward — conversations between this disjointed couple whose relationship is on its last leg, and you get the most stressful film experience of the year, which perfectly matches our current social and political climate. That second-hand anxiety as a viewer skyrockets when their first conversation hits a dead end.
The ensemble may be small, but it’s solid in terms of performance. Needless to say, Jesse Plemons is incredible, especially when he portrays a soft-spoken and cold-shouldered sternness where you can’t decipher what emotions he’s experiencing. He’s a wild card actor who can keep you on your toes as a viewer. Jessie Buckley is also fantastic as the neurotic and dissociative unnamed woman who narrates the story. Getting to hear so much of her internalized dialogue makes this a new sort of performance from Buckley and she really nails the dreadful monotonous American dialect. Though they appear sparingly, David Thewlis and Toni Colette add another chilling, disturbing edge to the film as Jake’s abrasive parents. They make their limited time memorable to say the least.
For a two-hour-long psychological horror film, I’m Thinking of Ending Things really didn’t need to be TWO hours long.
Charlie Kaufman is great at writing long conversational scenes that take unexpected routes. That being said, there are far too many prolonged sequences of Jake and his girlfriend chatting in the car, having philosophical conversations about life, cinema, and literary things. It just felt like two halves of Kaufman interacting with one another. Most of the conversations they share lead nowhere and it takes away from the slow burn of the psychological horror.
Never watch a Charlie Kaufman movie before bed. Hell, don’t be a dumbass like me and watch two Kaufman movies back to back before bed. I did a double billing with Ending Things and Anomalisa and man, I couldn’t sleep that night. I just felt an overbearing weight of dread and like my entire existence was put on display by this guy who loves to trigger a state of existential isolation in his audience. 2020 is the worst time for this movie to come out, yet it’s also the most fitting. If you have never liked or related to a Charlie Kaufman movie but are currently feeling emotionally/physically isolated, Ending Things will help you understand those emotions. Just like how doctors suggest not to eat spicy foods before you go to sleep, don’t watch a Kaufman movie before bed; it’s bad for the mind and soul.
