Charlie Kaufman earned fame – and an Oscar – as the screenwriter for quirky films such as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. With 2008’s Synecdoche, New York, Kaufman took on the role as director for the first time.

Armed with a MacArthur Grant, regional theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) attempts to mount a massive production on Broadway. However, his personal life nags at him, as his difficult relations with women dog him.

In the midst of this, Caden suffers from a mysterious medical malady. Caden struggles to create his dramatic masterwork while he deals with various issues, both physical and interpersonal.

Any plot synopsis simplifies matters, but some do so more than others. Regard the above two paragraphs as an extreme form of condensation.

Even if I devoted much more text to the narrative of Synecdoche, though it would become difficult to summarize. The film goes down so many quirky and unusual paths that any overview can’t suffice.

Though Synecdoche starts as straightforward – well, straightforwardish. In the world of Charlie Kaufman, no one can ever expect a clear-cut, grounded-in-reality narrative.

Nonetheless, the first act or so of Synecdoche depicts a path that we expect the film to take. It depicts a neurotic man who seems deeply affected by all the death and disease depicted in an exploitative media.

However, even while Caden’s physical condition deteriorates, that theme tends to fade. Instead, Synecdoche follows a seriously surreal path.

Basically Synecdoche goes from the more satirical world of Being John Malkovich and turns into something closer to David Lynch. Whether this works or not depends on one’s point of view.

Me? Not so much, though I fully retain the right to change my mind.

Synecdoche comes with so much dense material and so many layers that it becomes literally impossible to take it all in via just one screening. Unquestionably, I would come away with a different opinion if I saw it a second time.

However, I admit that the film didn’t involve me enough to make me want to give it a second shot. Rather than provide a complex world that intrigues the viewer, Synecdoche feels so insular and welded to Kaufman that I find little about it to prompt a desire to re-engage with it.

Synecdoche really does take a pretty severe turn as it goes, one that implies the surreal sequences – which ultimately comprise much of the running time – show Caden’s dying vision.

Elsewhere on this disc, a panel of critics dismisses that notion, but they don’t make it explicit why they rule out this concept. Honestly, I think this explains why the movie becomes more surreal and also the change in tone.

Not that Synecdoche paints a literal view of the world before “the shift”, as it comes with Kaufman’s typically sardonic perspective. We get a warped take on reality, but still one that largely adheres to “real world rules”.

That all goes out the window as the movie progresses, and Synecdoche becomes so bizarre that it totally departs from believability. Does this necessarily “prove” my thought that it represents Caden’s dream?

No. It seems just as valid to feel that Synecdoche “goes surreal” to represent the utterly subjective nature of our own lives. Each one of us sees everything through a unique prism, so as weird as the film gets, this could represent Caden’s perspective irrespective of objective reality.

Whatever the case, I simply think Synecdoche largely loses the thread as it goes. Kaufman indulges in the transitory nature of time, relationships and life choices but he does so in such an inaccessible manner that it becomes a chore to watch.

Really, Synecdoche rambles loosely for an extended period before Kaufman tries to wrap up matters with a summary at the end. This feels kind of like a cop-out, as though he doesn’t trust what he built during those long stretches of oddness.

I guess this implies we figure out how to conduct our lives only when we die, which may well be true – ask me when I’m dead. It still seems strangely pat for a movie that seems to attempt so much depth.

Though I tend not to think Synecdoche becomes as rich as it wants to be. We all build the “plays” of our own lives and the movie treats this in such an overly-complex way to make it more a tale of raw pretensions than an involving journey.

Synecdoche comes with potential but it depicts the loose narrative in such an opaque manner that it becomes tough to swallow. The viewer appears likely to feel weighed down by the incessant subtext and symbolism.

And that becomes the reason I feel generally disinclined to give Synedoche another shot. The film turns into such a slog to watch so much of the time that it doesn’t provide enough pleasure to provoke a second viewing.

Maybe Kaufman needs a strong director to rein in and shape his potential excesses. When he sits in the driver’s seat, he may not enjoy the same balance of perspectives that he’d get with someone else as director.

Whatever the case, I do admire the insane ambition of Synecdoche, as it takes a ridiculous number of chances. The end result simply doesn’t connect with me.

Synecdoche, New York appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Given stylistic choices, the Dolby Vision image didn’t become a showpiece, but it represented the source well.

Sharpness usually worked fine. A little softness cropped up at times, but the majority of the movie demonstrated appropriate delineation.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no signs of edge haloes. Grain felt light but natural, while print flaws failed to appear beyond a tiny speck or two.

Colors tended toward a dingy green or a rusty amber, with some splashes of red as well. The hues did become warmer as the film progressed. These didn’t dazzle but they suited the design choices, and HDR added some range to these tones.

Blacks seemed dense and deep, while shadows offered appropriate clarity. HDR gave whites and contrast extra emphasis. Again, this didn’t become a presentation one would use to show off their TVs, but it depicted the original photography well.

As a character drama, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack lacked a lot of breadth. Still, the film’s occasional surreal moments managed to expand auditory horizons.

Not much that I’d call impressive manifested from the mix. Nonetheless, the soundscape offered a reasonable sense of involvement.

Audio quality felt positive, with speech that remained natural and concise. Music showed appealing range and warmth.

Effects didn’t gibe us much, but they felt accurate and full. This seemed like a more than acceptable mix for the story.

A few extras fill out the disc, and In and Around Synecdoche, New York runs 18 minutes, 59 seconds. It brings info from writer/director Charlie Kaufman, producer Anthony Bregman, production designer Mark Friedberh, visual effects supervisor Mark Russell, script supervisor Mary Cybulski, key makeup artist Naomi Donne, makeup designer Mike Marino, and actors Catherine Keener, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

“Around” looks at story/characters, cast and performances, sets, locations and effects, makeup and aging elements.

If you hope for explanations of this complicated narrative… sorry, as “Around” mainly focuses on technical domains. Nonetheless, it comes with good information.

The Story of Caden Cotard spans 12 minutes, eight seconds. It offers notes from Hoffman as he reflects on his character and his experiences during the film. Hoffman gives us some useful insights.

Next comes Infectious Diseases in Cattle, a 36-minute, 38-second “Bloggers Round Table”. It involves film bloggers Glenn Kenny, Andrew Grant, Walter Chaw, Christopher Beaubien and Karina Longworth.

The participants discuss their screenings of the film as well as their reactions and thoughts about it. I appreciate their perspectives, though I would like a contrary view or two given the movie’s polarizing nature.

Three Screen Animations fill a total of four minutes, 31 seconds. These show elements only tangentially viewed in the final film, so they become a fun addition.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we conclude with NFTS/Script Factory Masterclass, a 27-minute, 40-second program. From a British stage presentation, Kaufman tells us aspects of his career as well as his approach to stories/screenwriting,

Perhaps because he seems like such an oddball, I always assumed Kaufman wouldn’t discuss his work much. That makes a chat like this surprisingly engaging, as despite its relative brevity, we get some good insights, even if we don’t hear much about Synecdoche.

As polarizing a film as one can find, Synecdoche, New York largely leaves me cold, at least on first viewing. Given its complexities, the film may open up to deeper pleasures on addition screenings, but based on this initial time, it feels like it fails to find the meaning and depth it promises. The 4K UHD comes with solid picture and audio along with a decent array of bonus materials. I might change my mind someday, but today Synecdoche strikes me as ambitious but inconsistent.

Note that as of November 2022, this 4K UHD disc of Synecdoche, New York appears solely via an 11-film “Sony Picture Classics 30th Anniversary” box. It also includes Orlando, Celluloid Closet, City of Lost Children, Run Lola Run, SLC Punk, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Devil’s Backbone, Volver, Still Alice and Call Me By Your Name.