![]() Even as Lucy contemplates breaking up with Jake, she wonders if there’s any point to it. I’m Thinking of Ending Things isn’t a puzzlebox, it’s about capturing a feeling. But Kaufman’s script and Buckley’s performance almost render the question irrelevant. It’s tempting to get lost in parsing out which elements of the film are real, and what’s just projection. Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons in I’m Thinking of Ending Things. There’s another presence in the film, too, a melancholy janitor (Guy Boyd) at the local high school, though his connection to the main characters isn’t immediately clear. Thewlis, meanwhile, oozes through the film, sometimes sharp, sometimes soft. Collette’s performance is almost frantic, and at times, she seems to be stuck repeating words or syllables like a broken record. On the other hand, Collette and Thewlis play to the rafters, because the transformations they go through are more obvious. ![]() a genuine interest in Lucy’s work, for instance) as Lucy vacillates between affection for him, and revulsion. And Plemons, while playing arguably the most solid character in the movie, has to convincingly capture seemingly contradictory traits (a habit of mansplaining vs. Even as Lucy’s job and interests continue to change (she’s a waitress, then a painter, then a student), she has to remain one character, rather than a myriad. That constant, subtle sense of change and motion puts a tremendous burden on Buckley and Plemons’ shoulders. The young woman - let’s call her Lucy - and Jake can’t possibly stand in for every heterosexual couple out there, but the shifting details around them evoke both the small problems that often plague relationships, and the way memories and ideals can change. This isn’t a relationship drama so much as it is the relationship drama. Photo: Mary Cybulski/NetflixĪll the strange elements, including the way the young woman’s name seems to constantly change (Lucy? Louisa? Lucia?), point to Kaufman’s larger intentions with the work. The family dog intermittently disappears and never stops shaking itself Jake’s mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis) are young one moment and old the next some of Jake’s baby pictures seem to be of his girlfriend instead.ĭavid Thewlis, Jessie Buckley, Tony Collette, and Jesse Plemons in I’m Thinking of Ending Things. When they arrive at his parents’ farmhouse, the trip gets even weirder. Each time the young woman’s voiceover resumes, Jake seems to be able to hear what she’s thinking, and he interrupts her every time her thoughts get too heavy. The whole drive is an uncomfortable conversation bouncing between two people and three voices. ![]() As her thoughts are communicated to the audience via voiceover, however, Jake breaks in. They’ve been dating for seven weeks, just long enough for her to think that it might be time to break up. His latest, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, adapted from the novel of the same name by Iain Reid, immediately dives into that same surreal territory, as a couple driving down a snowy road are joined by a third passenger: intrusive thoughts.Ī young woman (Jessie Buckley) sits in the passenger seat of a car as her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) drives them both to his parents’ house for dinner. His past projects include Being John Malkovich, about a portal that allows anyone who goes through it to enter the titular actor’s mind, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, about a couple who decide to undergo a treatment to erase their memories of each other. Charlie Kaufman’s involvement with a film is a sure sign of strangeness ahead. ![]()
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