Reviews

This film reminded me of Inland Empire in its incredibly ambitious attempt to present an allegory for the very way people experience life. People often praise Holy Mountain for its all-encompassing attempt to provide a life guide but when placed alongside Synecdoche and Inland it seems about as valuable as the liner notes from a Propagandhi album.

In just over two hours Synecdoche does a pretty damn thorough job demystifying the dramas we've been taught to live our lives by and the fictitious notion of the sanctity of the self.

The Olive character (his daughter) is a brilliant example of the latter. At the start of the film she is played by a ridiculously cute actress and we see her as a precocious 6 year old. In a sudden turn of events she is taken to Germany by her mother and the next time Philip Seymour Hoffman sees her it is behind a pane of soundproof glass and she is in her twenties, covered in tattoos and dancing nude. The next time he is actually able to speak to her she is in her late 30s, on her deathbed and doesn't even speak English (due to growing up in Germany). It's a brilliant argument against the "I'm a beautiful and unique snowflake" argument people hold so dear when thinking of their personality/self. The viewer is obviously incredibly disconcerted by the notion that the filmmaker wants us to believe that the sweet little girl at the start of the film is the same person as this bloated, tattooed, surly German woman. The meaning behind this being that it is not the same person and simply because that individual is still his daughter (biologically) and still has the same name does not mean it's the little girl he knew decades ago.

Synecdoche offers the viewer answers unlike Inland Empire which is INCREDIBLY nebulous and really only has answers for individuals both familiar with Lynch's semiotics and with the analytical skills to extrapolate meaning through the application of existentialist/absurdist frameworks. There is a monologue which is delivered by an actor playing a priest (a character of virtually no importance in the film which is very fitting conceptually) that appears towards the end of the film which does a miraculously good job telling the viewer what they've been shown. Actually reminded me a lot of Ondatjee's "Coming Through Slaughter" and the whole "futility of creating signposts in life" idea.

One big difference between Synecdoche and Inland is the ending. Perhaps due to Synecdoche's more overt attempts to provide explanations and answers its ending comes across as being somewhat sad. I can see this being particularly true for people who didn't really grasp or didn't really agree with Kaufman's argument. I find Inland Empire's ending to be incredibly joyous with its metafictional catharsis (two characters from unrelated stories and times inexplicably meeting, embracing and crying in each other's arms). Interestingly enough Synecdoche ends in almost an identical fashion. Hoffman is in the arms of an actor who plays the mother of the character he is currently playing in his own play and he is expressing regret for not fulfilling the promise that character made to her mother. In both instances the characters transcend their roles and unquestionably embody that which the filmmaker has been working towards throughout the film.