Ohhh Charlie...

"Synecdoche, New York"
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Diane Wiest, Tom Noonan, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emily Watson
***.5/****

What a film, what a film. It's excruciatingly difficult to write about a Charlie Kaufman film, who also wrote and made his directorial debut with "Synecdoche, New York," pronounced (sin-nek-duh-kee). Kauffman has written some brilliant screenplays in recent memory (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). This is his most ambitious, and brilliantly flawed script.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a New York play director who fears that he is dying. With many signs of sickness, Cotard is left by his wife and child who move to Berlin to pursue their own life. The fragile and paranoid Caden is then surprised to the news that he has received the MacArthur grant, Caden now chooses to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something he can put his whole self in.

I will not describe all of the characters in this film. Caden has half a dozen feminine influences in his life, most whom have deteriorated his life. Caden's play will take place inside an obscenely large warehouse in the middle of New York. The warehouse will be filled with life-size replicas of buildings, homes, and other New York city fixtures. The whole cast will act out their lives in the created mockup city.

As the film progresses, Caden's artistic craft is disturbed by all of his fears, regrets, wishes, hopes, and dreams. Reality and fantasy are blurred throughout the film creating an endlessly surreal vision from Kaufman. The play extends for decades as the cast and scope grows larger. Caden hires actors to play himself in the play, as well as actors to mock his assistant. Follow me so far?

The film is way to complex and surprising to touch on plot points, characters, and themes. A review can't do this film justice, nor should it. The experience that this film provides is mesmerizing, I will have to see it 1-2 more times to fully capture Kaufman's vision.

While the film isn't for everyone, it will capture an audience of film aficionados who love Charlie Kaufman, who is becoming as odd a screen writer, as David Lynch is a director, and that's a compliment. Seek this film out for a bizarre and touching experience.