I learned a very important lesson last night when I watched a movie that I was recommended by a random guy in my advertising class. I had gotten talking to him while waiting for our late professor, and it happened that he was an RTF (Radio Television and Film) major. I then asked him whether he had seen The Master yet since it had just come out and looked interesting. He hadn't but we then talked about what we were thinking the movie was going to be like. I mentioned how I was a fan of Phillip Seymour Hoffman (who is one of the main characters in The Master), so he then asked if I had seen Synecdoche, New York. I said that I hadn't even heard of it, and so he then recommended I watch it. I finally got around to it last night and I learned something very profound about movies. If you don't even have an idea how to properly pronounce the title of the movie, you are probably not going to enjoy it!!
Sadly, this turned out to be true. I didn't truly hate it. It had some redeeming qualities such as the fact that Hoffman really was great in it and there were many powerful scenes where you feel for him and other characters. Also, the cinematography was well done. Not the best looking movie I've ever seen, but better than your average Hollywood movie. The only part that lost me was the story. It slowly and slowly got progressively weirder, and there were many parts of the movie that I still don't completely understand the symbolic or metaphorical meaning of them. I thoroughly think that some of them may not even have reasons.
Maybe I should slow down for a second and summarize a bit what the story line entailed.
It is about this theatre director (Hoffman) who does a play that becomes critically praised and because of it he gets awarded a McCarthy Genius Grant in order to put on a special play written by himself. He then attempts to create this insanely huge scale play that basically creates a "world" within New York City. The whole movie takes place over 40 years or something, through multiple divorces of his, and him falling in and out of insanity. The whole movie really made no sense to me even after reading a review online trying to explain what happened. There were small parts of the script that made for interesting stories on their own, but it seemed like none of them flowed together and created an understandable cohesive story. I'm sure that the director was attempting to get some sort of point across regarding some large philosophical idea (possibly death since that was a key part of what Hoffman's character dwells on), but I can thoroughly admit that I did not get that great enlightenment.
So next time, I should make sure to ask some other movies a person likes before I take their recommendations seriously. Or maybe the kid had just been forced to watch it in one of his classes and thought it would be funny to make a sad gullible kid go out and watch it too. If so, well played.
I’ve seen Synecdoche, New York! Though it was over three years ago, I remember liking it. It was also recommended to me by someone else as an “artsy” and “out there” kind of movie. The plot did progressively become weirder and there were many things I did not understand. But as a whole, I enjoyed it. It was a film that stuck with me for some time.
ReplyDeletePhillip Seymour Hoffman was excellent, as usual. I sympathized with his character, Caden, as one bad thing after another continued happening to him. The guy couldn’t catch a break! There was plenty of dark humor. But what I liked most about this movie was how unconventional it was. I haven’t seen anything like it. It was dark, gritty, and downright sad at some parts. I suppose it was how emotional and powerful some of the scenes were. Scenes such as Caden’s final conversation with his daughter or the actor’s last words before leaping to his death were scenes that stuck with me.
Anyways, in my opinion, it’s worth a watch but don’t expect to come away from it with a complete understanding or in a cheerful mood.