Synecdoche, New York explores nightmares that are all too realistic and human. Its hero, Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a 40-year-old local theater director in Schenectady whose life is collapsing around him. His marriage to his artist wife Adele (Catherine Keener) is on its last legs while at the same time he is stricken with a series of increasingly catastrophic illnesses. He is afraid he will die any moment having never accomplished anything important in his life. When he receives a MacArthur Grant, he decides to use the windfall to stage a massive theater piece in NYC, determined to create The Great Piece of Art and leave something as true, honest and heartbreaking as life itself. It’s one of those rare films that deals with death, excruciating illness, gross bodily fluids, despair, heartbreak and bad sex but can still bring a twinkle to the eye.
Synecdoche, New York is both written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, who is making his directorial debut after writing such screenplays as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation, and Being John Malkovich. This film first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and went on to play at the Toronto Film Festival as well.
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