Writer/Director: Charlie Kaufman
Year: 2008
Cinematographer: Frederick Elmes
Kaufman's dexterity in writing some of the most complex plots ever filmed is almost equalled by his ability to film his own stories. In his directorial debut, the greatest screenwriter of our generation creates one of his trademark surreal dreams, and affected me personally. I walked away dazed and depressed, fearing life and swearing to myself that I had to take advantage of the few years I have left to live. But I felt a bit manipulated. I felt kind of sickened by Kaufman's pithy genius and felt that I could hear a slight self disgust not only coming from the character he co-created with P. S. Hoffman, but from the writer himself. I felt it was a personal work, Kaufman's own inner muck shoveled onto the screen... but done in such an elegant and precise way that it shames all other pity-party "semi-autobiographical" screenplays. That, or Kaufman himself imagined the piece coming from a Hoffman-like character and wrote the screenplay in character.
Either way, his genius as a writer is indisputable.
But.
I didn't get a spark. Great cast. Great performances. Good movie all around, but I'm no where near genius enough to put my finger on what this movie lacked. All I know is I liked it, but that it falls short of being a great film. The effort put forth is certainly award-worthy, but somehow the final product falls short of Kaufman's high watermark film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Maybe it was Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry's fun, playful spirits in the directors chair that lightened the weight of Kaufman's brilliantly depressing works.
It reminds me of Woody Allen. His films are great whether comedy or drama. But where he really shined was with a little light touch amidst his self-loathing psychosis, like in Annie Hall.
