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On the trip to his parent’s home, Jake gets the young woman to recite a poem she’s written called ‘Bonedog’ it’s a descriptive but nihilistic piece performed extremely well by a tearful Buckley. These mutable personalities are enforced by Kaufman’s referential script that spans multiple forms of media. The age of the parents constantly changes from old to young and back again, whilst Jake and the young woman regularly change personalities through the multiple deviations in their conversations. At other times, her firm and straightforward thoughts contrast with her vague and non-committal conversations with Jake she always thinks about ending things with Jake but never outright states it.Įvery member of the quartet is perfect here, which is remarkable considering the constantly changing nature of their characters. Sometimes, it turns into a stream of consciousness in keeping with the film’s existential tone. But for me, Jessie Buckley completely steals the film and quickly becomes its centre through her narration. David Thewlis (who worked with Kaufman on Anomalisa) brings his broad Lancashire accent to his role, Toni Collette gives a multi-faceted performance on the level of her work in Hereditary and Jesse Plemons is great throughout. Let’s move on then to the cast, consisting of four main players. We don’t even know what the young woman’s name is – some of the names used include Lucy and Louisa who, to add further mystery to this plot, make up some of the missed calls on the young woman’s phone. But it’s not just her questioning this world it’s the audience too, as they are constantly left uncertain as to whether some of the unfolding events took place or not. Soon, the story is marked by random, perplexing peculiarities such as the swing set in front of a dilapidated house, which the young woman notes during the trip to Jake’s parents’ house. However, if there is one thing you need to know about Charlie Kaufman, it’s that he doesn’t specialise in the normal. Furthermore, the film intermittently shows the life of an old man (Guy Boyd) who works as a janitor at a high school.Īt first glance, I’m Thinking of Ending Things has a fairly normal premise about the twilight of a short relationship, where one person is unsure of whether to continue dating the other. And when she arrives at Jake’s parents’ house, the night she spends there goes down increasingly strange paths that make her question the world around her. However, as the title suggests, the young woman is thinking of ending the relationship, believing that Jake possesses a negative, unfixable quality to him. And his latest film, a Netflix Original released on Friday, is no different.īased on – though not entirely faithful to – the novel of the same name by Iain Reid, the film follows an unnamed young woman (Jessie Buckley) as she goes on a road trip with her short-term boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis). Kaufman is one of the most celebrated screenwriters of the modern era, a surrealist who often creates abstract, existential stories with unique premises that end up probing life and humanity. I’m Thinking of Ending Things was one of my most anticipated films of 2020 and it was because of its writer and director Charlie Kaufman.
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