Synecdoche, New York (2008)

A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Director:

Charlie Kaufman

Writer:

Charlie Kaufman

Stars:

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams

8 wins & 29 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Philip Seymour Hoffman	...	Caden Cotard
Catherine Keener	...	Adele Lack
Sadie Goldstein	...	Olive (4 years old)
Tom Noonan	...	Sammy Barnathan
Peter Friedman	...	Emergency Room Doctor
Charles Techman	...	Like Clockwork Patient
Josh Pais	...	Ophthalmologist
Daniel London	...	Tom
Robert Seay	...	David
Michelle Williams	...	Claire Keen
Stephen Adly Guirgis	...	Davis
Samantha Morton	...	Hazel
Hope Davis	...	Madeleine Gravis
Frank Girardeau	...	Plumber
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Maria

Storyline

Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. Fresh off of a successful production of Death of a Salesman, he has traded in the suburban blue-hairs and regional theater of Schenectady for the cultured audiences and bright footlights of Broadway. Armed with a MacArthur grant and determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can put his whole self, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a small mock-up of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off the tracks. The shadow of his ex-wife Adele, a celebrated painter who left him years ago for Germany's art scene, sneers at him from every corner. Somewhere in Berlin, his daughter Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria. He's helplessly driving his marriage to actress ...

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Plot Keywords:

actress | painter | therapist | death | voyeurism | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

The cast features many actors who appeared in films directed by Woody Allen. Lynn Cohen and Jerry Adler' were in _Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). Cohen also appeared in Deconstructing Harry (1997). Dianne Wiest appeared in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), September (1987), and Bullets Over Broadway (1994). Samantha Morton was in Sweet and Lowdown (1999). John Rothman was in Stardust Memories (1980), Zelig (1983), and The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985).

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Goofs

In the scene where Caden is talking to Hazel directly after having talked to the doctor after his seizure, there is a dog in a box behind Hazel in her box office. Upon cutting to Caden, and then cutting back, the dog is gone. This is the remnants of the character "Squishy", from the original draft of the script. The almost-dead dog was found by Hazel after driving home from the premiere. She was saddened by Caden denying her, and she finds the dog, run over and bloody on the side of the road. She decides to keep it. This is the only scene where he is present, and his presence is not explained.

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Quotes

Pastor: Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you may never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. And even though the world goes on for eons and eons,...

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Movies that People Still Don't Understand (2018)

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Soundtracks

Jingle Bells
Written by James Pierpont (uncredited)
[Incorrectly credited as Traditional]
Arranged by Jon Brion

User Reviews

Kaufman's Most Ambitious Film

I got to see a screening of this in Boston, and let me admit to the fact that I consider this film a masterpiece. It is a rare entry into the market: an ambitious film, a gamble that, sadly, makes me question how much success it could garner in the mainstream box-office.

Charlie Kaufman, however, is not a screenwriter/director who inherently aims his sights on the box-office or the mainstream (anybody who questions this has to question Being John Malkovich). Instead, his greatest strength is a boundless creativity and insight into the qualities of humanity, and Synecdoche, New York is no exception. Rather, it is the apex of Kaufman at his most insightful, his most ambitious, and (as his directorial debut) his most hauntingly beautiful.

The plot itself is a contradiction of simplicity and complexity: to say that it is about Philip Seymour Hoffman trying to put on a larger than life play is an accurate statement, yet it completely fails to capture what Synecdoche, New York tries to convey. It is not a conventional film, but instead it is ambitious: a mixture of conventional narrative and surrealist cinema, one where the beauty of the film does not solely lie upon the plot, but the way every minute quality of the film ties together to form the tapestry.

The actors all do their parts brilliantly. I am hard-pressed to find any performance that was weak or, for that matter, standard of the Hollywood formula. Hoffman is brilliant in a role that utilizes his physical and acting gifts, and he takes the character through the spectrum of its possibilities. All the other actors also performed brilliantly, although what struck me as wonderful about the acting choices are that the majority of the actors present are not "glamorized" for the screen. Rather, the blemishes, the age, and the imperfections that make them ordinary are ever present in the film, making Synecdoche, New York seem beautiful in a strange, "dirty" way. Much like a city, its majesty lies not in grungy street corners or clogged rain gutters, but in the whole image that is comprised of such small, necessary imperfections.

And that, ultimately, is why Synecdoche, New York is such an ambitious, beautiful film. It is not a perfectly crafted standard screenplay, nor a perfectly executed piece of cinema. At least, Kaufman's work is not perfect under the current criteria of modern cinema. Synecdoche, New York is a gamble; a mixture of images and music and dialogue and acting that follows Kaufman's heart and his meditations on several ideas: namely, those on life and death and the connections all around us. It is dark yet funny, evocative and haunting. It is perfect in being a work of art that tempts us to find explanation, yet ultimately needs none compared to the feelings they evoke in us.

Viewers who are looking to see the difference between "art" and "entertainment" need only see Synecdoche.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

5 February 2009 (Netherlands)

Also Known As:

Synecdoche, New York

Filming Locations:

Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$172,194, 26 October 2008

Gross USA:

$3,083,538

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$4,658,401

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Likely Story, Projective Testing Service

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1