Film Review: I’m Thinking of Ending Things
I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020) is a film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Minds) that is based on a 2016 novel of the same name by Iain Reid. It was released directly to Netflix on September 4th, 2020, skipping the theaters as a result of the pandemic.
SPOILERS ahead if you haven’t seen the film.
I watched this film on Netflix shortly after it was released and it does make me wonder what the theater experience would’ve been like. After watching the film it was like waking up from a fever dream. There are some very trippy, creepy moments that stick with you after the film and I can only imagine that such feelings would be even more immersive if seen in a theatre.
That said, the film is in a 4:3 aspect ratio (the aspect ratio for TV until the advent of high definition television) and since it can only be watched on Netflix on home viewing devices, the claustrophobic, dreamy quality of it is enhanced.
I really enjoyed the chemistry between the actors and I felt that they casted incredibly well. The performances are strong and there are some really funny moments between the characters at times.
What takes away from the film is this deep feeling that it’s just all a dream of the custodian at the high school that shows up at the end. At least for Eternal Sunshine… there was a reason I could get behind and understand the dream-like occurrences happening through the film. But for I’m Thinking of Ending Things, this wasn’t particularly true: I wasn’t able to stand behind the reasoning for why things were happening nor understand them.
For me a film doesn’t necessarily have to answer all the questions, but there should be a certain silver lining of story logic, which maybe I’ll see it if I watch it again. The pastiche and parodies of previous films (A Beautiful Mind, Oklahoma!) and articles (Pauline Kael’s review of Woman Under the Influence) are only fun for me for a few seconds before I wonder if anything is really added by alluding to these other works.
Overall though, I think the main draw of this film for me is how accurately it displays dream logic, anxiety, and how uncomfortable new, uncertain relationships can be.
