One winter day, Jake and a woman named Lucy, Lucia, or Louisa are out of town. The two are only dating, and he will introduce it to his parents. In a scene that lasted more than fifteen minutes, the two caught up with some music, listened to some music, and stared uncomfortably outside the window. She recites her own poem. We hear her thinking: Should I end the relationship? Jake seems to be able to read her mind.
This is the scientist of Charlie Kaufman, the enigmatic screenwriter of “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation.” And the “eternal sunshine of the clean mind”. As a director, he has made movies like “Synecdoche, New York” and “Anomalisa”. Labyrinth films in which the scenes are lost in the minds of people or fictional characters, who themselves have already become involved in ideas, riddles and doubts. It sounds hard to understand, but it is fun psychological movie puzzles.
A single cleaner runs through the empty hallways
Once we get to Jake’s parents’ farm, we enter darkness, says Linxian ambiance with a curious dinner. The parents (Tony Collette and David Theiolis) mutate into younger and older versions of themselves. Later, another long trek follows, through the snow and with a detour through Jake’s Old School. A lone janitor we saw before slumping through empty hallways.
Kaufman adapted and manipulated Iain Reid’s 2016 book to create a puzzling script full of time jumps, memories, and illusions. Book passages, movie references, and quotes are intertwined. The movie is just as crowded as Jake’s teen bedroom, which we can take a look at. This brief moment may be the key to building the story.
Fun, dark, witty, literary, and existential: It’s a typical Kaufman movie that rolls in your head thanks to its great actors and beautiful dialogues. Watch out for Netflix viewers surrounded by beeping phones and local distractions. On the other hand, it was easier to watch this live streaming movie again.
