Viewed on DVD. I’ll start by saying I rarely like surrealism and this film has it in spades. To me, one of the challenges of filmmaking is putting all the pieces together so it adds up to something complete, coherent, and meaningful. Signs of bad filmmaking includes loose ends and inconsistencies, and surrealism to me seems to run counter to these things and at worst is kind of a cop-out, lazy way of making a film. I should say that I did like Adaptation, also written by (but not directed by) Charlie Kaufman.
What is it about? I’m not sure - something about a playwriter/director who works on a big play a lot and has a lot of strange relationships. I did not like this movie, though I did appreciate how well it captured the essence of dreams in some parts. It was just too frustrating to watch and the only reason I kept watching it was the hope that everything would somehow explain itself in the end. The only way I got more insight into it was watching some of the DVD extras, where I learned how impressive the set design and construction was. I can’t recommend it but others would. Some critics were impressed by a lot of things, and I can’t disagree that it is an ambitious piece of work that accomplished something - I’m just not sure what. Even my 16-year old daughter liked it, which leaves me wondering how she suddenly got more sophisticated than I am.
Metacritic gives it a 67.
