I’m Thinking of Ending Things, an adaptation of the Iain Reid novel of the same name, represents celebrated writer/director Charlie Kaufman’s second non-original screenplay. His first was the aptly-named Adaptation, a nutty postmodernist comedy, itself about the pitfalls of adapting texts (which featured Nicolas Cage in a starring role as both Charlie Kaufman and a fictionalised neurotic twin brother). If that sounds bewildering, don’t worry—that’s sort of Kaufman’s M.O.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things plays it comparatively straight—though many of its source novel’s story beats are altered, some sequences extended and others truncated, spirit and tone are transposed faithfully. Kaufman speaks explicitly through his texts, using characters as vehicles for his own insecurities, particularities and goofy jokes. But here his voice isn’t so loud as to swamp everyone else’s; it’s newly mature, almost reticent. The barbed, punk-rock spirit of Being John Malkovich yields to balanced consideration, sentimentality; the nostalgia of middle age. It would be tempting to say Kaufman has lost his edge—but the truth is, it just feels more like he doesn’t want to be edgy anymore.
The film follows a young couple, Jake and an unnamed woman, who journey through snowy roads to an engagement with Jake’s dysfunctional parents. To no one’s surprise, the trip is psychogeographic; an expedition through blizzards of forgetfulness and dark locuses of childhood trauma. Through its perpetually confounding setting—and some magnificent performances from David Thewlis and Toni Collette—the film invites us to witness the terror of ageing; of being confined in bodies and minds which rebel more in their uselessness every day. As a consequence, while this film (and its source novel) are primarily concerned with mundane everyday activities—putting on a wash, cooking, dusting, ordering slurpees—the tone is one of heightened, exaggerated, Lynchian horror. For long stretches, humour is either absent or so dry that it’s completely invisible. This is likely to rankle anyone who struggled with Kaufman’s earlier Synecdoche, New York—a similarly dour and oblique affair. This new work is an easier watch, but it rivals Synecdoche for confrontational auteurism.
Kaufman is unlikely to win new fans either, as I’m Thinking of Ending Things will rile that wave of rationalistic, plot-hole-poking teenage filmwatchers by leaving much up in the air as the credits roll. In a world inundated with ‘ENDING EXPLAINED’ youtube videos, Kaufman’s expressionism and de-emphasis on narrative seems twice as bold as it used to. But he’s a writer who understands that questions are invariably more compelling than answers—and the questions I’m Thinking of Ending Things invites are some of the trickiest of his career. Sure, it’s not on the same level as his earlier stuff—but it’s still better than everyone else’s.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things is available on Netflix now.
Words: Andrew O’Keefe