Unlike the rest of the world, Charlie Kaufman has had a successful 2020. His debut novel, Antkind, was published to critical acclaim in July, while his third film, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, was just released on Netflix. Based on the 2016 novel by Canadian writer Ian Reid, I’m Thinking of Ending Things stars Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons as a young couple who are driving to meet his parents for dinner. The visit turns out to be much more eventful than anticipated.
Variously referred to as Lucy, Louisa, Lucia, and Amy, Buckley’s character is thinking of ending things with Plemons’ Jake: she can’t quite remember how long they’ve been together, but she feels that the relationship has run its course. The film begins with the couple driving through a blizzard, and, like all of Kaufman’s films, the dialogue is spectacularly wide-ranging, philosophical, and realistic. However, right from the start, the audience can tell that something is not quite right: there is an undercurrent of definite awkwardness, perhaps even hostility, between the two, and the sequences featuring them are interspersed with random flashes into the life of a high school janitor.
Things only get weirder when Jake and his girlfriend arrive at his parents’ farm house. Jake’s parents, brilliantly portrayed by Toni Colette and David Thewlis, are incredibly loving but hopelessly awkward, and their uncomfortable interactions with Buckley’s young woman prove that something strange is afoot. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is just as eclectic and bizarre as Kaufman’s other films, the difference being that this world is supposed to be normal. The world of the film is not overtly supernatural, so why does Buckley’s character have so many names? Why is there a childhood photo of her hanging on the wall of Jake’s living room? And how is she simultaneously a biologist, poet, painter, gerontologist, and a film critic?
Terror builds via an accumulation of these minute absurdities and inconsistencies–differences between what is said in what scene and what is said in the next, or between what has been said and what can be seen. The beauty of the film being a Netflix original is that one is able to pause, rewind, and rewatch as much as necessary in order to make sense of these many details.
Although the novel provides a very clear solution to its mystery, the film is much more open to interpretation, and it allows viewers the space to create their own meaning. Kaufman, who famously struggles with adapting books for the screen, stated in an interview with Indiewire that he is “most successful with adaptations when I allow myself to take it and do with it whatever makes sense to me.” Kaufman’s decision to forgo the novel’s thrilling mystery plot for a more emotional and impressionistic story pays off: the film is more profound, the twist that much more tragic.
In true Kaufman style, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a meditation on all aspects of life: childhood, aging, romance, work, art, memory, identity, regret, death. This laundry list of topics and themes may appeal to some viewers, as Kaufman is indeed a brilliant and perceptive filmmaker, but for some viewers, I’m Thinking of Ending Things may seem perplexing and overdone in its attempt to cover everything. Ultimately, your experience of the film will depend upon your personal tastes. If you appreciate the mixture of zaniness and profundity of films like Synecdoche, New York, then Kaufman’s latest work will give you endless material for thought. But if you are a more literal-minded person who struggles to appreciate ambiguous mystery films, I’m Thinking of Ending Things might leave you cold and underwhelmed.
4/5 STARS