I'm Thinking of Ending Things

The effects psychology have on dramas can bring interesting risks to how they are interpreted. The intentions of concepts can be either messed up in their execution or raise it to insightful heights of quality. A protagonists mental psyche can be unreliable and test the audience on what really happened such as Joker (2019). Another example with regards to these effects include ambiguity that makes it difficult to distinguish which character is telling the truth in cases like The Lighthouse (2019). This brings us to a new entry from Charlie Kaufman (Anomalisa (2015), Synecdoche, New York (2008)), I'm Thinking of Ending Things. The writing/directing prowess of Kaufman is one of the best modern talents and as usual, Netflix, the platform it's publicly released on, does a poor job marketing it. It was brought to my attention from a movie reviewer content creator who had covered it earlier this year (Adam Johnson from YourMovieSucks.org). I had a feeling it would have arthouse directing sort of vibes considering what I have seen from his last feature Anomalisa and after watching it, it's definitely one of the most unique films I've seen this year that can be divisive to watch.

What's it about? The story follows a life perspective change that occurs during meeting with a boyfriends parents where something feels very off about the situation. It's difficult to talk about this premise carefully without mentioning spoiler details but one detail needs to be clarified: this is not a horror genre feature at all (ignore that kind of label when looking it up). This is more of a psychological drama that's aiming for a solvable puzzle type of viewing rather than being ambiguous. Everything behaves odd and inconsistent with itself but the puzzle pieces are spread throughout visually and verbally footsteps towards the answer reveal in the end. 

The revelation itself will test anyone on seeing if they feel like rewatching it again to interpret the details in that context or if it was uninteresting. There are some parts of the conversations that are more tricky to figure out in terms of the context of what's going on so rewatching them again can either make more sense or feel like padding of the runtime. 

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actors to focus on are Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley, though it's difficult to discuss how good they are without spoilers. Jesse gives a great nuanced performance in a role that's restrained with pain trying to gear towards a positive outcome. Jessie provides a pretty good showing of her acting that brings some intrigue to towards the premise. Honorable mentions go to Toni Collette and David Thewlis for bringing their strong performances that work well with their makeup of their respective roles. 

 

Overall Consensus: I'm Thinking of Ending Things is an intriguing psychological drama whose unambiguous premise is bolstered by its great cast, solid writing, and a fascinating execution. ⭑⭑⭑⭑ Runtime: 2 hours 14 minutes R

 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or filmmaker Charlie Kaufman. You are in the mood for introspective story with puzzle pieces to observe. You want to take a break from normal average blockbusters and want to see something peculiar.

 

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or filmmaker Charlie Kaufman. You aren't the mood for introspective story with puzzle pieces to find. You want to take a break from normal average blockbusters and want to see something peculiar. You don't want to check out a depressing flick.