My Review of I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS

Throughout the beginning, middle, and end of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, we as the audience are told very little; rather, we are shown a girl's experience meeting her boyfriend's parents that spirals into a convoluted fever dream, and then we’re left alone, cold and confused, to put together the significance of it all. The premise is simple: a woman rides with her boyfriend to a dinner with his family, making a few brief stops within the small town he grew up in. Yet, as this surrealist story (based on a novel of the same name by Iain Reid) piles on one odd affair after another, it seems to be the viewer’s job to find meaning in them, given the lack of direct exposition that many may be used to. The performances are great across the board, and this is heightened by the fact that the script lets conversations unfold in a really organic fashion. Particularly, Jesse Plemons's Jake has a knack for capturing the human mannerisms that awkwardly appear during innocent disagreements or small talk that has droned on for far too long. The ambiance that is born out of muted colors, unrefined sound mixing (it's tough to hear a conversation through a snowstorm), and the lonely atmosphere of the middle-of-nowhere feels like a bizarre combination of grandma's house and seasonal depression. In hindsight, Charlie Kaufman impressively managed to create a slow, grounded story that still has the brain running a mile a minute, which I have never found in any other cinematic experience.