In the book we are told these calls are coming from her own number. In the book and the film the narrator receives incessant phone calls which she doesn’t want to pick up. I’m Thinking of Ending Things Review: Charlie Kaufman Does Existential Horror By Rosie Fletcher The Phone Calls They have an uncomfortable and awkward dinner with the parents, and the narrator finds a picture that looks like her, some disturbing paintings in the basement (more on this later) and has awkward individual conversations with both parents. She relates their meet-cute – they’re at a pub quiz, his team name is Brezhnev’s Eyebrows, he uses the words ‘ipseity’ and ‘cruciverbalist’ – which she doesn’t understand. The two drive to the farmhouse whilst discussing various philosophical and existential ideas along the way. How once a thought is there, it sticks, and how only thought is really ‘truth’ – that you can fake actions but not thoughts. The voiceover from the start of the film is exactly how the book begins, and the book talks a lot about thought. An unnamed female narrator is on a trip with her boyfriend Jake to visit his parents but she is having doubts about the relationship. Having already read the book might remove some of the mystery elements but the film is so evocative and sad and there’s still loads to be gained even if you know the deal from the off. It’s not so much of a ‘twist’ as a slow reveal. The film has horror elements but it has more in common with Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York – a beautiful, existential lament – a tragedy with elements of horror, thriller and mystery that encourages the viewer to understand what they are watching much earlier. If you already know the ending of the book it just isn’t anywhere near as scary – and approached cold for the first time, this is a really unsettling read. Buckle up for this one and make sure you’ve stocked up on your meds.If you can, you must read the book first because the book is a horror/thriller. But I’m Thinking of Ending Things is one of the most daringly unexpected films of the year, a sinewy, unsettling psychological horror, saturated with a squirming dream logic that tips over into the domain of nightmares. This is not cinema that leaves you feeling good about things. But the authenticity of Buckley’s performance, which seems all the more remarkable when you think back over it than it does when you are watching her, gives the character a solidity, while the other characters drift around her like ghosts. Perhaps describing her as the central role is misleading – there’s a friable, mercurial quality to the character that seems to repeatedly crumble and re-form, like a sand sculpture. She is introduced as Lucy, but slips into other names (and other clothes and other voices) as the film weaves onwards. But she’s fully miraculous in the central role of a young woman who has agreed to meet her boyfriend’s parents (a frazzled Toni Collette and David Thewlis) on their isolated farm, even as the snow begins to fall and the angst sets in and she is “thinking of ending things”. We already knew that Jessie Buckley is something special. This is not cinema that leaves you feeling good about things
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |