I’m Thinking of Ending Things Review

Although I’m incredibly late, Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” has quickly jumped into the place of my favorite movie to come out of 2020. Ironically, it has themes that we all dealt with last year, namely loneliness, isolation, and confusion. While that interpretation of the story isn’t ever outright given to us, it doesn’t take too much digging to understand it. The movie’s an incredibly weird psychological thriller, and while many bashed the movie at release for being devoid of meaning, the meaning of the story relies on the deeper, albeit weird, language of the story, especially in its final act. I’ll also mention the look of the film. Although things start of very mundane, the look of the film progressively becomes more abstract. The performances also add to this, especially in Jake’s parents. What starts out as an awkward meeting with some old parents gaining dementia becomes something more sinister. I don’t really want to say too much without spoiling the entire movie, and to be honest, what I’ve said has may be too much. Nevertheless, ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ uses these weird elements to further the meaning of the story. While, at times, these weird elements are just to show something like “The characters on drugs now,” ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ uses it to show us more about each character. Now, this is where I’ll start getting into more explicit spoilers, so skip to the end if you want to avoid any spoilers.

Similar to another movie from 2020 that I enjoyed, Tenet, the main character isn’t actually the main character at all, revealed later in the final act. This is subtly hinted to through the constant change of Jessie Buckley’s character’s name (literally credited as Young Woman.) Also with all of her characters also constantly-changing interests being based solely in the interests Jake’s parents reveal to be his own interests from his childhood. The idea of revisiting your childhood is also explored through smaller parts of the story such as the fear of what lies in the basement. So, although ‘Young Woman’ may not be a real person at all, she is learning about Jake’s past, almost as if it’s his subconscious trying to remind him of what’s real. The movie deals with the idea of only really living your life in your head. And for the protagonist of the story, this line between the fantasy in his head and his real life blurs. While we see various time-line versions of Jake’s parents, we also see multiple versions of Jake. While never explicitly stated, knowing what I was getting into, I was fairly certain the Janitor was Jake from early on. Janitor Jake is looking back on his past, which is why we see all of the jumbled timelines, and he’s thinking of how he wishes it went. We see this through the end of the film when Jake, in old person makeup, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize (never truly explained why, with reason), and begins to sing a song from Oklahoma. All of this being said, the movie isn’t perfect, and don’t get me wrong, as you can tell, the movie is mind bending and genius. My biggest issue is just how much of the time is spent with the parents, as I never found that to be a terribly necessary part of the story. I understand how it’s intended to introduce the larger aspect of time’s role in the story, but, at least for me, the point was made clear fairly quickly. While I’m definitely in support of using a slow pace in the movie, I’d still wish if they’d moved out of the house slightly faster. Another major complaint others had, that I definitely understand, is the long philosophical discussions between Jake and Young Woman. I think the scenes could have been shortened, but I also think that the length of them was fully intentional. Each part of those conversations is Jake having a conversation with himself, looking upon it from a third person perspective.

Overall, while there were scenes that dragged on too long with the dialogue, the movie was insanely genius from my interpretation. While it’s probably my favorite of the year, it’s also easily the most underrated. Many didn’t like the movie, and while I can understand that, almost every piece of this movie seemed to fit for me. I’d love to see the achievement of the film’s structure be recognized later on, and a best adapted screenplay nomination at the Oscars would be enough for ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ to hopefully get the respect it deserves. All in all, I loved it, so I’m giving it a solid 8.5/10