Synecdoche, New York
Okay... so this post will totally give away a lot of what happens in the film... if you haven't seen it, and don't want to be spoiled, don't click. But do watch it. Please. Because it was quite strange and if nothing else I would prefer to be confused in a group... :P
So. Wow. That was just... wow. I am so very confused.
I'm trying to figure out whether I liked it or not. I mean... I don't think I could say I enjoyed it, but then the view of the world it presents is bleak. The idea of presenting the world like... like one of those Russian dolls is harsh and somewhat depressing... however, at the same point, it seems to be saying that in the end, everyone is unique, and that no-one can be reduced below themselves. He seems to falter at the realisation that he can't possibly hope to do justice to the world he is trying to represent.
And then there is his relationships... I loved his relationship with Hazel. There was a beauty and simplicity there, despite all the crap that went on. In the end they were together, as in the beginning they were together. But his daughter? His first daughter? That was just... confusing and horrifying.
And there were some things that, frankly, baffled me. Perhaps because of the seemingly non-linear presentation of events in time - in particular, I can remember the scene with him standing in line with the cardboard box, and the scene of him looking at the tiny paintings, with what appeared to be the events that came after those scenes, then returning to the beginning... but really could also have been a flash-forward. Hard to say.
Same thing with the diary. Initially it seemed it was the diary of a little girl, but there were things in the diary that couldn't have been there if it was a diary from her childhood. So was that all imaginary? Or was it implying that he took the diary after her death, and those readings of the diary didn't fit into the normal stream of time in terms of the central story.
And then there is the one thing that I just found totally, totally, absolutely and incomprehensibly bizarre.
WHY WAS THE FUCKING HOUSE ON FIRE?!
I don't understand. It was on fire. And the real estate agent's son was living in the basement. Why? Why did she buy it? Why did she live there? Why didn't it burn down? Why did it kill her at the end, but not before?
That single event starts to make everything unravel for me. Like, maybe the portrayal of time in the main story was an illusion, and some, if not all, of the events occurred in a totally different expansion or contraction of time than showed in the film. I have no idea.
So confused.
I'll be thinking about this one for a while, methinks.
Anyways... gonna go tear my hair out a bit and try to figure out what it all meant. :)
So. Wow. That was just... wow. I am so very confused.
I'm trying to figure out whether I liked it or not. I mean... I don't think I could say I enjoyed it, but then the view of the world it presents is bleak. The idea of presenting the world like... like one of those Russian dolls is harsh and somewhat depressing... however, at the same point, it seems to be saying that in the end, everyone is unique, and that no-one can be reduced below themselves. He seems to falter at the realisation that he can't possibly hope to do justice to the world he is trying to represent.
And then there is his relationships... I loved his relationship with Hazel. There was a beauty and simplicity there, despite all the crap that went on. In the end they were together, as in the beginning they were together. But his daughter? His first daughter? That was just... confusing and horrifying.
And there were some things that, frankly, baffled me. Perhaps because of the seemingly non-linear presentation of events in time - in particular, I can remember the scene with him standing in line with the cardboard box, and the scene of him looking at the tiny paintings, with what appeared to be the events that came after those scenes, then returning to the beginning... but really could also have been a flash-forward. Hard to say.
Same thing with the diary. Initially it seemed it was the diary of a little girl, but there were things in the diary that couldn't have been there if it was a diary from her childhood. So was that all imaginary? Or was it implying that he took the diary after her death, and those readings of the diary didn't fit into the normal stream of time in terms of the central story.
And then there is the one thing that I just found totally, totally, absolutely and incomprehensibly bizarre.
WHY WAS THE FUCKING HOUSE ON FIRE?!
I don't understand. It was on fire. And the real estate agent's son was living in the basement. Why? Why did she buy it? Why did she live there? Why didn't it burn down? Why did it kill her at the end, but not before?
That single event starts to make everything unravel for me. Like, maybe the portrayal of time in the main story was an illusion, and some, if not all, of the events occurred in a totally different expansion or contraction of time than showed in the film. I have no idea.
So confused.
I'll be thinking about this one for a while, methinks.
Anyways... gonna go tear my hair out a bit and try to figure out what it all meant. :)