Based on the novel by Iain Reid, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is Charlie Kaufman’s third directorial outing, following the underappreciated Synechdoche, New York and enjoyable, but less effective, stop-motion feature Anomalisa. This new effort marks a fascinating turn in Kaufman’s career, an adaptation from the man who turned such work inside out in his script with a wry smile in the now-immortal Adaptation, and follows right on the heels of his own literary ambitions with the release of the novel Antkind.
On its face, I’m Thinking of Ending Things takes a bit of a thriller approach, and suffixes itself with an almost suffocating two-hander narrative device for much of its opening act. Centered on a miserable car ride between a nameless young woman (Jessie Buckley) and Jake (Jesse Plemons), the former, who is the centerpiece of the film, spends much of the ride ruminating on the need to end their relationship. This internal dialogue alternates in forced conversation with Jake on various topics such as Walt Whitman poetry, her term paper, and what awaits them at the end of the journey – in this case, her meeting Jake’s parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis) for the first time. While this is usually an already nerve-inducing notion, it becomes an outright nightmare once they arrive at the farm and settle in for extremely uncomfortable dinner conversation.
Shifts in reality and time quickly step into gear, and as the young woman (identified as Lucy, just like a Whitman poem that Jake expresses deep adoration for) steps from room to room in a farmhouse that wouldn’t be out of place in a 70’s hicksploitation film. She encounters Jake’s parents at varying ages and mental capacities: at one moment his mother is in her vibrant years, cleaning up the home like a 60’s housewife, in another she’s on her deathbed with Jake overseeing her final moments. You’d be forgiven for thinking that perhaps Kaufman was regurgitating some of the same fear of illness and aging that comprised the core of Synecdoche, New York, and as such it makes this film’s first hour feel a bit suspect and perhaps a lesser part of Kaufman’s body of work. A trifle for the streaming crowd.
But it all turns out to be a feint.
In discriminate fashion, the filmmaker cuts away to segments that focus on an unnamed high school janitor (Guy Boyd) and his daily routine, such as being the butt of jokes from the local mean girls, and his taking in a (particularly relevant) romcom during his downtime. As Jake and Lucy finally begin their return trip home, the actual core of I’m Thinking of Ending Things begins to formulate. Yes, the “walk and talk”, more like “drive and talk” aspects make their return, but they’re affixed with new purpose after the couple’s experience at his parent’s house. As the snow continues to beat harder outside of Jake’s car, their own conversations are more charged and take on fragments of his/her/someone’s experiences and influences.
Rather than a xeroxed form of arenas he had already covered, the material quickly shows its hand as instead a perfect companion piece for the physical deterioration on display in Synecdoche, with a focus on the loss of mental health and wellness, as the characters’ memories have all collided on top of one another in a tragic jumble. Whereas that previous feature felt like an expansive and speculative study of the human condition, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is completely focused on the interior and becomes all the more terrifying and heartbreaking in its various turns.
Even the title, which seems to have a declarative meaning from the film’s outset, takes on new meaning by the time end credits roll. The “I” not all being who you expect. Another masterpiece of miserabalism from the one of its chief purveyors.
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