Charlie Kaufman is the master of introspective, metatextual films. From his screenwriting work Eternal sunshine of the spotless spirit, Be John Malkovich, en Adjustment, to attract double duty as a writer and director Anomalous en Synecdoche, New York, there is a careful, conscious feeling for each plot point and monologue. I think things end, his latest writer / director venture for Netflix, is no different. Kaufman uses every trick up his sleeve, including the streaming medium itself, to his advantage.
The majority of I think things end takes place in a car. It is not a movie for road trips, but instead uses the car setting to reinforce how claustrophobic being can be in a relationship. During these driving scenes, the conversation never goes much anywhere, but that’s where so many powerful monologues and tensions lie.
The plot of the film is difficult to fit into a two-part blurb on an info screen, but when all magical realism and metaphor is stripped away, it’s a film about a woman who meets her boyfriend’s parents and then his old high school research. The plot is simply a means to the true transformation of the film, and looks like a young woman without fixed name from resentful girlfriend to curious observer to her true identity.
For the Kaufman uninitiated, he has a few signature cards that he often goes back on, especially in his registration works. For example, he loves playing with the concept of performance, whether it’s puppetry Be John Malkovich or script writing in Adjustment. He also likes to use abnormal psychology and delusion. In Synecdoche, New York, the main name of the main character is Cotard, a reference to Cotard delusion. His other directorial work, Anomalisa, began as a play he wrote under the name Francis Fregoli, a reference to another delusion.
Knowing that, it should be clear that nothing is as it seems in this movie. When the narrator and her friend Jake finally meet his parents, everything starts to go awry. We see Jake’s parents not only as they are, but as they were, and as they will be. She experiences a whole lifetime of living with her at the same time. This is only exacerbated by cuts to an older housekeeper in high school, because he lives his daily life, apparently unrelated to the story of the young lovers.
Jessie Buckley gets a starring role, and plays a constantly shifting and changing character that unfolds in poetry and Pauline Kael film reviews without a second thought. Jesse Plemons, though he bumbles, is brilliant as Jake. Toni Collette and David Thewlis, playing Jake’s parents, bring that hair-brained edge that only dips a toe into comedy.
All this unrest and confusion builds in the end, but it’s a revelation you could pass without notice. That’s where Kaufman plays with form. Were this a theatrical release, viewers would pay to see the film, then spend days or weeks unpacking what they saw. With Netflix, however, a streaming audience can simply pick up the distance and go back to the beginning – or re-mark the bizarre song and dance numbers that punctuate I think things end.
The film ends with a musical number, but that is not meant to be the end of the viewing experience. There are so many moments, slippers, a pin, a painting, begging for a rewatch. It is worth noting that this film is an adaptation of a book, a medium with the same ability to go back directly to the beginning after reaching the end.
Without spoiling anything, I think things end is a brilliant and beautiful dissection of delusion and loneliness that costs quite a bit of digging, but is worth all the effort. Kaufman films always have different interpretations for everyone, and that is especially appropriate here. The true story is the one we tell ourselves, there is nothing more real than a thought.
I think things end premiered on Netflix September 4th.
