DVDs in Review

Synecdoche, New York

Title: Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Release date: October 19 2009

Certificate: 15

Format: DVD

DVD RRP: £19.99

Rating: 4/5

Charlie Kaufman's 'Synecdoche, New York' is not an inviting film. It's title is hard to pronounce and few people know what the word actually means.

Even the dictionary definition of "synecdoche" is somewhat confusing: "a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (as society for high society), the species for the genus (as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (as boards for stage)."

But somehow, after watching the film, it does make sense. More so than that, it's an intellectual masterpiece, a twisting cavernous descent into the parts that make up the whole of a fractured existence.

At the centre of it all is Caden Cotard, a theatre director who manages to suffer from just about every ailment going. He thinks he's dying (a bit like Woody Allen's usual dilemma but here the comedy is jet black), and in a way he is dead.

Few actors could give off such tender, tortured pathetic tones as Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman (whose name is even similar to the writer's) - he's used to playing downbeat characters and to look at him he's not a leading man in the stereotypical sense, but he's crafted himself into one of Hollywood's most reliable and best screen talents.

Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman) hires Sammy (Tom Noonan) to play him

As Caden's marriage and relationship with his daughter dissolves, he pours himself into a new play but his psychological detachment swallows him in the process. The only outlet is the new play, so he undertakes an ambitious plot to make the play about him, effectively building a life size replica of New York inside a massive warehouse.

The film sees Caden hire an actor to play him (a brilliant performance by Tom Noonan) but as the play becomes even more consuming he has to hire someone to play the person who he just been hired. And repeat. Layer upon layer is added and the play becomes a sort of stilted, living replica of his life.

It's ingenious and pretentious all at once, but that hasn't stopped Charlie Kaufman before. This is the man who wrote 'Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' - three masterworks that subverted reality and shattered conventional studies of identity.

Caden's stage play grows in scale and reality as focus is lost

Stepping into the director's role for the first time, he's done it again with 'Synecdoche, New York' and in a way, it's riskier than those three prior films. The visuals aren't as glossy or dynamic, stripping back the music video feel in favour of a certain stillness.

'Synecdoche, New York' is an exceedingly hard film to describe or even recommend. It will divide viewers but regardless of your personal conclusion, it will no doubt stay with you, repeating in your mind much like Caden's own actions. If you want something different, try this.