Director: Charlie Kaufman
Cast: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis
Language: English
When I’m thinking of ending things kicks off, it seems to be simple and natural. What else can a story about a girlfriend meeting her boyfriend’s parents be? But this is Charlie Kaufman at the helm, and we all know that with Kaufman what you expect is never what you get. The story sets off when a Young Woman (played by Jessie Buckley) is on her way to her boyfriend Jake’s (starred by Jesse Plemons) house to meet his parents. What seems like a ‘normal’ next step is marred by one problem. Young Woman wants to end things with Jake. Why? We don’t really know. The movie which is told from the point of view of the woman largely revolves around a car ride to and back from the farm where Jake’s parents live.
In typical Kaufman fashion, we do not actually know the name of the woman who is engaged in a battle of wills with herself throughout. Does it matter? Not in the large scheme of things. Is an unspoken idea unoriginal? she questions herself even as she fakes enthusiasm in meeting her might- be ex boyfriend’s parents. The car ride is filled with riddles and the couple seem to be constantly engaged in conversations around existential ideas and questions of reality as they discuss things that interest them. Is she a physicist or a writer? Or both? As the dialogues segue into topics that range from movies to poetry, nothing seems to be constant except the Young Woman’s loudly echoing thought “I’m thinking of ending things.”
It is when she meets Jake’s parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis), that things go from weird to downright bizarre. The parents are wrapped in a sort of time warp and the constant stares and crazy giggles aimed at their guest set the tone for the upcoming scenes. I’m thinking of ending things is not a film where you can explain the plot and the characters and call it a day. At one point Young Woman seems to find herself going through the life phases of Jake’s parents that change as much as her clothes. Despite all the fluidity in the film, a common strand throughout is age. There are several points where age becomes a central topic of conversation between the young couple and we also get to see how age wreaks havoc on the elderly couple in the film. But after some time, the pace of the continuous conversations slows down the film further given that the content of the said conversations is already a struggle to wrap your head around. We soon long for ‘normal conversations’ but such a thing doesn’t exist in this 2-hour saga.
Even as Kaufman sets us up for an eventful suspense-filled ending, we will still only be scratching the surface of what he wants us to see through this movie. The film has too many nuances around every corner, and sometimes it feels overwhelming to pass by concepts that might or might not be there in the plot. One aspect of the movie that makes it stand apart is the fantastic acting by Toni Collette and David Thewlis. While Toni’s character smacks of a well-meaning but innocent mother proud of her genius son’s achievements, David adores Toni and her smiles. Toni pulls off the role of a disturbed mother with elan and her stares and giggles somehow make your heartbeat faster.
“There is no objective reality,” says a character in the movie – An emotion that every viewer will agree upon while they watch I’m thinking of ending things.
Rating: 2/5
