ynecdoche (pronounced Sih-NECK-doh-kee) is a figure of speech in which the parts are used for the whole or vice versa.
In this sense, Charlie Kaufman's newest exploration, "Synecdoche, New York," is aptly named.
The movie is working on so many different levels with so many different layers that it's hard to pin point one theme in the movie. It's about dying — but it's also about dating, and also about creating something original and groundbreaking. But it could also be just about life in general.
"Synecdoche, New York" marks Kaufman's first stint in the director's chair. He's written screenplays (including this one) for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Adaptation" and "Being John Malkovich."
This film follows regional theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) as he decides to stage one final, enormous play before he dies. His wife (Catherine Keener) has just left him and moved to Berlin with his 4-year-old daughter (Sadie Goldstein). His body has been acting up on him — he starts to get psoriasis ("not psychosis" as he points out) and leg tremors.
The movie, despite its sad overtones of death, sickness and broken relationships, is still fun to watch during some scenes. Caden's love interest throughout the movie, Hazel (Samantha Morton), purchases a house that has rooms that are on fire. Apart from complete absurdity, when becoming intimate in a scene she lights two separate candles to set the mood, a mood that's already been set from the blazing living room.
The film was originally supposed to be directed by Spike Jonze ("Adaptation," "Being John Malkovich"), but he was already working on "Where the Wild Things Are." So, Kaufman filled his spot in the director's chair.
Kaufman's scenes are quick, barely staying with one supporting character or setting for long enough. This doesn't allow for any emotional attachment to a character.
Time moves erratically throughout the film — sometimes decades change from scene to scene without any acknowledgment. This causes the movie to become hard to follow, but Kaufman might be getting at a certain point. Life floats and flutters, but in a split second, everything that is good in the world passes by.
Caden loses his wife and daughter, and in a scene a couple minutes later in the film, the woman his wife moved to Berlin with is speaking in a German accent. She informs Caden that his daughter isn't the 4-year-old girl he remembers; she's actually 11. This is just one example of the weird time shifts placed throughout the movie.
As a whole, "Synedoche, New York" demonstrates the sadness of one man as he struggles to achieve something real and revolutionary that will make him memorable.
The parts — quick scenes, myriad characters and irregular time shifts — work together to create this whole, a sad depiction of a theater director struggling to cope with the way time ages one's body.