Review of I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) by Clem666 — 19 Jan 2021

I did not know Charlie Kaufman before seeing this movie. I was just searching for a very recent movie to get out of my comfort zone. I did not search a certain genre or popularity. 'i'm thinking of ending things' appeared to be exactly what I was looking for.

The first scenes had a striking and appealing effect on me. Since the beginnng I knew I was going to witness a movie characterized by gorgeous scenes and style, with varied camera angles and cinematographic effects.

The scenes in which the heroin meets Jake's parents are ont of the greatest prowesses of the movie. A movie never gave me goosebumps like that. It is easy to compare these scenes to those in 'Get Out', another popular awkward-horror movie. But where 'Get Out' manages to make you feel a bit of the characters' embarrassment, 'i'm thinkg of ending things' succeeds in making you feel like you're part of the scene. Embarrassment is inside of you. All along the movie sends you clues to ensure you it is constructing something but you can't reach it, you can't understand it. All you have to do and can do is to reunite small passages to try making up a version of truth. It may be really frustrating but this is the kind of fragmented movies that will force you to think, to be part of it, to use your own sensitivity to get what is going on.

The film makes a series of interesting decisions and is characterized by a surprising artistic direction. This ranges from the presentation of different paintings made by the protagonists, to the angles taken by the camera, to quotes directly from books and short stories. This contributes to the impressive depth of 'i'm thinking of ending things', which is marked by intense reflections and unsuspected precision on the subjects of aging, loneliness, our relationship with others, the relationship between women and men in a couple situation and our daily choices.

The end (no spoil) is really surprising and will frustrate more than one spectator by its lack of continuity with the whole story previously staged. Like most stagings, it is accompanied by many artistic choices that we will be free to decode with our personal impressions.