I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Sep. 6th, 2020 01:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
singedsunI've just finished watching the new Charlie Kaufman movie that just came out on Netflix "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" and boy, it is a mind-bender. I read a follow-up interview with Kaufman too just to see if there was any clarity about things that I was missing by the end but I feel like I understood exactly what I understood.
This isn't a horror movie per-se but boy it sure feels a little bit like one.
The movie itself feels like a stage play which isn't really inaccurate. The story (which is an adaptation of a novel by Ian Reid) is about a girl, Lucy, who is going to visit her boyfriend's parents for the first time. But that's just the surface of what's happening in this movie.
I'm going to try and do this without spoilers now, but I'd LOVE to talk to people about this movie in the comments. So if you've watched it PLEASE comment and let me know what you thought.
On the surface of this story of Lucy and Jake going to his parent's farmhouse for dinner, we hear this internal monologue from Lucy as she thinks (and repeats) "I'm thinking of ending things". She carries on in this way while her boyfriend Jake tries to engage her in some small talk during their snowy drive out to the farmhouse where his parents grew up, his former childhood home. Dinner at the farmhouse seems... strained. His parents take forever to come down the stairs, his mother seems very nervous and high-strung and through their discussions during and after dinner it's obvious that things aren't normal. It's dream-like as Lucy's name and her profession drift from Variations of Lucy and from physics to poetry to art. As the way Lucy's person shifts so do her clothes and her hair.
But she's not the only personality shifting, while Jake stays somewhat static, his parents do not. And as Lucy focuses more on trying to figure out what's going on around her, her internal monologue slows and lessons until she's just as dreamlike as parents and the farmhouse itself.
Intercut with these scenes are one of an old janitor working at the old highschool Jake went to. We see him tending to the school mostly ignored by the students during the day and then alone at night, mopping the floors. At one point he watches some of the students rehearsing part of Oklahoma! and another we cut into the television show he's watching while he eats lunch or dinner.
And then... there's the drive home from Jake's house. Things become slower and less clear and we're often watching Jake and Lucy from outside the car, outside during a snowstorm, driving which enhances the very shifting and odd conversation they have about their visit and Lucy seems briefly to come back to herself. She seems to remember that she's 'thinking of ending things'.
Oh, it's weird and frightening and reminds me vaguely of a Pahalnuik or Danielewski novel where things are not what they seem on the surface. Jake's parents are played by David Thewlis and Toni Collette who are phenomenal, and the two lead characters are just... when I say it's like a stage play, I mean their scenes together. They meander, but to a point. They get these long sections of dialogue that had to have been difficult to both recite and also embody.
I told Matt when it was over that I know he would've hated it but I do wish that he'd watched it with me just so I'd have someone else to talk about it with because it's so interesting to dissect. I can't classify it as a horror movie really, when it's more like an anxiety dream put on film. I get that's kind of Kaufman's style, but it's been more clear than in this. I hope other people watch it and come back to tell me what they thought.
This isn't a horror movie per-se but boy it sure feels a little bit like one.
The movie itself feels like a stage play which isn't really inaccurate. The story (which is an adaptation of a novel by Ian Reid) is about a girl, Lucy, who is going to visit her boyfriend's parents for the first time. But that's just the surface of what's happening in this movie.
I'm going to try and do this without spoilers now, but I'd LOVE to talk to people about this movie in the comments. So if you've watched it PLEASE comment and let me know what you thought.
On the surface of this story of Lucy and Jake going to his parent's farmhouse for dinner, we hear this internal monologue from Lucy as she thinks (and repeats) "I'm thinking of ending things". She carries on in this way while her boyfriend Jake tries to engage her in some small talk during their snowy drive out to the farmhouse where his parents grew up, his former childhood home. Dinner at the farmhouse seems... strained. His parents take forever to come down the stairs, his mother seems very nervous and high-strung and through their discussions during and after dinner it's obvious that things aren't normal. It's dream-like as Lucy's name and her profession drift from Variations of Lucy and from physics to poetry to art. As the way Lucy's person shifts so do her clothes and her hair.
But she's not the only personality shifting, while Jake stays somewhat static, his parents do not. And as Lucy focuses more on trying to figure out what's going on around her, her internal monologue slows and lessons until she's just as dreamlike as parents and the farmhouse itself.
Intercut with these scenes are one of an old janitor working at the old highschool Jake went to. We see him tending to the school mostly ignored by the students during the day and then alone at night, mopping the floors. At one point he watches some of the students rehearsing part of Oklahoma! and another we cut into the television show he's watching while he eats lunch or dinner.
And then... there's the drive home from Jake's house. Things become slower and less clear and we're often watching Jake and Lucy from outside the car, outside during a snowstorm, driving which enhances the very shifting and odd conversation they have about their visit and Lucy seems briefly to come back to herself. She seems to remember that she's 'thinking of ending things'.
Oh, it's weird and frightening and reminds me vaguely of a Pahalnuik or Danielewski novel where things are not what they seem on the surface. Jake's parents are played by David Thewlis and Toni Collette who are phenomenal, and the two lead characters are just... when I say it's like a stage play, I mean their scenes together. They meander, but to a point. They get these long sections of dialogue that had to have been difficult to both recite and also embody.
I told Matt when it was over that I know he would've hated it but I do wish that he'd watched it with me just so I'd have someone else to talk about it with because it's so interesting to dissect. I can't classify it as a horror movie really, when it's more like an anxiety dream put on film. I get that's kind of Kaufman's style, but it's been more clear than in this. I hope other people watch it and come back to tell me what they thought.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 02:47 pm (UTC)My thoughys - spoilers
Date: 2020-09-07 08:18 am (UTC)I liked the film, even if I am not completely sure I got it. But it seems to be fairly up to interpretation. At first I thought it was Louise/Lucy going through the motions of an unhappy relationship- there was never a good time to end things. The first meeting? When his mother is sick? She wants to leave but the time is never right. Howver, it soon changes direction.
I did notice some time dissonance straight away. They are in an older car, Lucy/Louise has a hairdo from the 80's, but also a cellphone.
Eventually it was clear to me that it was more Jake's story. I assumed early on that he was the janitor. This assessment seems to be correct. I thought at first that he would be part of unlocking the strange time loop, but apparently not. I read that in the original book, the female character is not even real. Bug it isn't clear, at least to me, if that's where the movie was going. I see her as perhaps being many women in Jake's life, and perhaps on some level, Jake symbolizes many people in hers. The raw events of the night could have been real, but so much else is thrown in.
What was with the dog being wet, and the basement? Perhaps those were just misleads, initily setting us up for a mystery when that's not really what this is.
ETA: So reading other reviews, it became clear that the movie skipped! I watched it at two different points and I must have accidentally skipped or something. So I completely missed the scene where she's in the basement.
I also found it interesting, as a woman, that Jake and Lucy's first meeting changed from a shy bar encounter to him being creepy and her giving into it. This made sense as a more concrete reality, as it's clear at that point that Lucy is peppering the story in the presence of Jake's parents. Still, of we accept that she is not real, and/or a stand-in for many women, what does that say about how Jake views himself?
ETA 2: I rewatched the scene where old!Jake (we shall assume) is watching a movie with a man named Nimrod costing his love interest, Yvonne, a job. "Nimrod" means "inept." Could this be another manifestation of a real incident, another woman he lost, another attempt at something better washed away?
I would prefer a more definitive explanation- but I can also appreciate why we are not given one. The movie is more conceptual.
Also, I now have "Tulsey Town" in my head. So there is that. :) Of course, in reality Tulsey Town wasn't a grand ice cream palace, but a miserable roadside stand. Had it become that way over time, or is this Jake understanding that with age, yet all the same withdrawing into the mythos? After all, I can envision someone in my parents' generation talking of such a place. The name Tulsey Town even sounded very familiar to me, probably for that reason.
There's also the interesting discussion of "Baby It's Cold Outside." I think this is less a memory of a conversation with a woman he loved, and more Jake realizing conventions have changed. Ultimately that's what the movie is - someone who is pushing against the very change he once yearned for, but was never able to achieve. The inconsistencies are also indicative of dementia, which if we suppose there's any reality to the sequences with his parents, his father appears to have died of. (Though his mother never seemed "quite right" either. But she may have simply been an over-accommodating 1960's housewife.)
Re: My thoughys - spoilers
Date: 2020-09-08 05:29 am (UTC)I think the biggest thing it affirmed for me, because I'd already guessed this was the case early in the movie, is that as you mentioned this is Jake's story. I also sussed out that he was the Janitor early on, but then as we went through the house and her names and professions started to change, and we saw her discover the poem she supposedly "wrote" in a book in his bedroom that I realized I didn't think Lucy was real. In the car after the farmstead I realized that neither young!Jake or any version of Lucy are real -- during the kiss scene at the high school when Jake can hear thoughts in that kiss and perceives the old man watching them. NONE of it is real.
We see the old man is fond of stories, with the pretend movie ending. And we see him at the beginning watching this women, Lucy, down on the street. And we hear their thoughts co-mingled for a few moments. And then again later during that kiss scene. I realized that neither this Jake nor this Lucy really exist. This is all in the Janitor's head and all the inconsistencies we see with his parents, with Lucy's clothes and profession, even her mannerisms, it's all old!Jake trying essentially to imagine the life a younger him might've had with a girl like that. But he can't quite figure it out - at what age he might've introduced her to his parents, for example. Or what kind of person she might've been, taken from the various books and studies he'd done in his own life.
If you want more things - there were things I spotted that had to be references to things (like the speech/movie review) Lucy gives on the return drive - that I didn't understand where they were coming from other than they were obviously referencing something. Same for the speech at the end.
The conversation about "Baby It's Cold Outside" I think too is like the two clashing opinions about that song we have in a modern age. Whether it's a woman who wants to be there and is coming up with excuses that might make her stay, or whether it's a predatory man who isn't letting her leave. Their both valid interpretations of the song but up to that point on that return trip, you see him ceding several points to Lucy. As if she's taken on a life of her own even within the confines of the relationship he's trying to force in his own mind. Like his own creation is getting the upper hand on him. Which I really liked.
I really liked how much could be up to interpretation though. You could think he's remembering old dates and dressing her up as 'the one that got away'. You could think there's a darker presence to what's happening (like with all the brrrrs in the dumpster at the school) like some kind of Groundhog's Day time loop of a date gone horribly wrong. And I love all those ideas too.
Re: My thoughys - spoilers
Date: 2020-09-08 11:49 am (UTC)We see the old man is fond of stories, with the pretend movie ending. And we see him at the beginning watching this women, Lucy, down on the street.
Yes, and she seems like a completely different person in that moment.It's in the car that she transforms.
I also read that in the book, we learn a bit more about the janitor/Jake's life, that he did become a biologist but his mental health issues cost him his job. However, others have noted that the movie seems to have done a different take on that, so it's unclear whether or not that's the intention. I think either way mental illness explains some of it, whether it's dementia or other problems. (Jake's mother also seemed "off", and I got mental illness vibes from her. But this also may be that he's trying to clumsily fit her into the narrative, rather than an indication of her true persona.)
As if she's taken on a life of her own even within the confines of the relationship he's trying to force in his own mind. Like his own creation is getting the upper hand on him. Which I really liked.
Ooh, well spotted.
I still think that the rom com couple we see had at least some basis in reality, BUT I can also see it simply being his love of media. He wants to have had a similar story. He may not even notice that the woman at the end of that movie didn't even look very happy. Or maybe he DOES notice, and that's why his portrayal of "Lucy" (of many names) is all over the place.
I should give this a complete rewatch, as I mostly revisited certain scenes. I did initially come away with a different impression of what was going to happen - before they left, I assumed the house was causing the time distortion, more so than Jake/the janitor's mind, and that the woman would eventually piece together that something wasn't right and get out, set things right. That initial perception probably influenced my later interpretation as well, even once I worked out that it had nothing to do with the house as much as the world.
I did notice the changing academic interests, though I don't think I caught the line about her not liking poetry before reciting poetry. However, I don't think I thought about it as conflicting immediately, because I've actually seen so many shows and movies where the "intellectual" character is intellectual in all things. Which is partially inaccurate - it CAN absolutely be the case, however it's often the case that people have their fields, too. So clearly here it was meant to be inconsistent, but I'm so used to that inconsistency it flew right over my head.
The name thing, I had assumed, was that she was hiding her identity - though it soon became evident that something more was going on.
So that might be why I saw her as more real, too - because while I figured out the janitor was either Jake or connected to Jake pretty quickly, I also expected the woman to have her own story, not BE the story, and maybe that's where it was easier to leap to her being many people, rather than a complete figment of Jake's imagination.
However, I definitely think it can be interpreted many ways, which is the beauty of it.
Re: My thoughys - spoilers
Date: 2020-09-09 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-07 10:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-07 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 05:06 am (UTC)There is a definitely creepy factor to it, especially in regards to the changes that happen at the farm house as the parents seem to be different and it becomes more an more obvious that Lucy's hair and clothes are changing and long-long pauses where it feels like something significant is about to happen. No ghosts or supernatural elements either.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 04:50 am (UTC)I like movies like this because it's not so abstract that there is absolutely no sense to make of it. But there is a correct theory to conclude. But it would take forever to guess all of the aspects right.
I just read an explanation and whoa. It was just good. Thanks for posting about it!
I also noticed a schizophrenic line and all the similarities to the disorder but it's not really mentioned in this article. Just alluded to by the whole movie. So I just picture him dancing around in the hall alone.
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/im-thinking-of-ending-things-ending-explained/
I'm assuming this is an official explanation and not just one person's interpretation. But I don't know.
I did watch Adaptation too recently and I definitely wasn't into it like these two.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 07:48 am (UTC)I like that too about the movie, that there are a bunch of different options for what is happening while you're watching.