 "Photo: Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics")
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman makes his directorial debut in the new film “Synecdoche, New York,” starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman is Caden Cotard, a hypochondriac playwright and theater director who begins to question the mundane nature of his life, his marriage and his derivative work in the theater.
Shortly after Caden’s wife leaves him, he is awarded a fellowship grant allowing him to pursue his ultimate theater piece. He creates a living, working city inside a giant warehouse, populating it with numerous actors and writing their thoughts, actions and fates on a daily basis.
Even as he adds stage versions of himself and his friends to the mix, Caden’s obsession spirals out of control and his piece begins to control him.
“Synecdoche” represents a retread of a previous (and much greater) accomplishment for Kaufman, who wrote the Oscar-nominated “Adaptation.” That script, too, dealt with the challenge of the creative process and its link to the challenges of human existence, and it’s easy to suspect that in “Synecdoche” the writer is still trying — and, conceivably, failing — to work out the meaning of his struggles in art and life.
Where “Adaptation” was supremely controlled chaos, “Synecdoche” is occasionally entertaining, occasionally insightful and largely meandering. Both Kaufman and his main character spend the entire film trying to reach a conclusion on these issues of art and life, and the film ends with the suggestion that Caden has wasted his life in the attempt.
Although it is an interesting conclusion, viewers inevitably feel that they have wasted the past two hours, as well.
Kaufman’s directorial instincts are fine; he ably leads Hoffman and a talented supporting cast through the film. However, for a writer who has previously collaborated with directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry on such visually striking films as “Adaptation” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” it is impossible to avoid noting the lack of visual style in “Synecdoche.”
Perhaps Kaufman is attempting to emphasize Caden’s entrapment in the mundane, but “Synecdoche” feels distinctly naked without the visual innovation we have come to expect from a Kaufman-written film.
One standout element of the film is a fine performance from the always-excellent Hoffman. The actor brings grumpy, worried charm to a rather self-obsessed character and sells some of the script’s more ridiculous moments (simply behold the restaurant scene where hypochondriac Hoffman, losing his motor control, performs salivation and swallowing exercises).
Catherine Keener and especially Tom Noonan stand out among the supporting cast.
Kaufman’s first stint behind the camera comes off as somewhat self-obsessed and rather unsatisfying. Although the former element worked in “Adaptation,” it does not fly with audiences unless the final point of the film is cohesive and clear.
Next time Kaufman wants to let his literary mind wander, he might want to keep it to himself.
Grade: C-
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