Synecdoche, New York

2008 • 123 minutes
4.4
165 reviews
69%
Tomatometer
R
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

From the writer of Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. The years rapidly fold into each other, and Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece, but the textured tangle of real and theatrical relationships blurs the line between the world of the play and that of Caden's town deteriorating reality. © 2008 Kimmel Distribution, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Rating
R

Ratings and reviews

4.4
165 reviews
Roee Rosenzweig
December 13, 2016
Incoherent on an almost inhuman level and BEYOND pretentious, this movie is only slightly more painful than repeatedly banging your head on a brick wall.
2 people found this review helpful
A Google user
October 24, 2017
Anyone rating this movie less than at least 4 stars obviously wasn't able to follow along with the story, or the message behind it. It is a masterpiece that makes you realize how quickly time passes and how important relationships with loved ones are. The entire cast did a brilliant job bringing the script to life. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars because this movie truly deserves it.
Finn E
January 5, 2015
This is the most beautiful film I have watched. There is so much to take in from it, and every time I rewatch it, I notice more and more. This film is amazing because it can interpreted in so many ways, and that's what makes in special.