Review: Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York

The directorial debut of acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is an overambitious meta-narrative about a director producing an overambitious meta-narrative. From the punny title to the bitter end, Synecdoche, New York is driven by its creator and main character's desperate attempts to address the grand themes -- art, love, life, and death. The one self-referential twist that Kaufman didn't intend: both the play-within-the-movie and the movie itself are disastrous failures.

Synecdoche, New York, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, and Catherine Keener, opens tomorrow. Read Jürgen's review.