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| Scene from I'm Thinking of Ending Things |
If you were to describe Charlie Kaufman's filmography in one word, it's headache. Not cerebral or surreal, just headache. Over a career spanning 25 years, he has taken a look inside the human condition and asked the profound questions about how our brain works. With Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he explored romance in one of the most creative dramas of the 21st century. More recently, he explored loneliness in Anomalisa by turning a hotel full of people voiced by only three actors. He's an oddball who takes risks, but at the end of the day, you'll understand why these ideas make your head ache at night, causing you to toss and turn at night. He may not always say it directly, but those willing to listen will find something satisfying in his frustration, finding profundity in the mundane conversations as we transition to the next phase of life.
This is what makes I'm Thinking of Ending Things a particularly unique ride even within his filmography. While every story has these twists and turns that reveal themselves to us, this Netflix collaboration is one that requires an insubordinate amount of patience, requiring audiences to get through a 20-minute car ride full of seemingly inconsequential conversations. Why does any of this matter? Kaufman has gotten to a point in his writing career where he sprinkles nuance so gradually that you might miss it entirely. It may be why this is a difficult film to understand, let alone enjoy. Is it actually a journey to visit family, or is this an attempt at Kaufman's grander existential crisis magnum opus? The answer lies somewhere in the middle, maybe blurred out in a cloud of snow in the rearview mirror. While the film eventually gets there, the road there requires an effort that not everyone will be willing to face.
