I promised in my original review to revisit this film on DVD and I had the chance to catch it again. It’s still kind of all over the map a bit, but knowing what to expect going in this time around allowed for a more nuanced viewing and there’s a lot of stuff going on beneath the surface, as well as right there on the surface with this film. It’s full of ideas, full of a love for the possibility of film as a medium, so credit for Charlie Kaufman there. The cast is a magnificent group of actresses supporting a wonderful lead turn from Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the film provides several striking visuals.
My main point of admiration for the film, as well as my main frustration is that the film feels like you need a decoder ring or a cipher to piece the film together. It was kind of like Mulholland Drive (one of my very favorite films of all time) where you could spend days piecing the film together and coming up with some sort of thesis. Whereas David Lynch would probably have an unspecific answer for what Mulholland Drive actually means, I think Kaufman knows exactly what he’s doing here with Synecdoche, which is probably why I find the complexity and obfuscation in Mulholland Drive more interesting than here. Mulholland Drive is open for interpretation, whereas Synecdoche invites interpretation but with a definitive correct interpretation, something that equals slight frustration for me.
It’s still an incredibly interesting film, something that won’t get boring upon repeat viewings. And there are so very few of those films around these days. B+
