The film begins in earnest with Louisa and Jake driving off in his car as snow gently falls. Again, both interpretations are plausible. And while some viewers will be spellbound as Louisa experiences thoughts of anxiety and despair, others are sure to rate this film as an endurance test. With bleak, heartbreaking images of isolation and desolation, either reading is possible. The tone here is deep melancholy throughout.
#Im thinking of ending things full
Kaufman shrewdly lets viewers decide for themselves, and his film is full of clues and conundrums. She could also very well be contemplating suicide, as the title further suggests. Louisa is trapped in liminal space, an emotional state where she is considering breaking up with Jake as the title indicates. But what transpires is far more complicated. These themes are in evidence once again in his ambitious and curious but not entirely successful new Netflix film, "I'm Thinking of Ending Things." Adapted from Iain Reid's novel, this long (135 minutes), stagy drama has the deceptively simple plot of an unnamed young woman (Jessie Buckley) - call her Louisa, as one character does - going on a road trip with her boyfriend Jake ( Jesse Plemons) to visit his parents at their farm. They feature doppelgangers and time loops that allow the characters (and by extension audiences) to re-evaluate things from different perspectives. Charlie Kaufman's films - " Being John Malkovich," " Adaptation.," and " Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which he wrote, and " Synecdoche, New York," and "Anomalisa," which he directed - are cheeky and depressing headscratchers.