First Hit: This was a very odd and different type film which makes an attempt to answer the big question: What am I doing here? But it was too long and was overly complicated and lost its zip somewhere in the middle.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard a local theater director who attempts to do something different; in this case he casts his version of “Death of a Salesman” with only young people.
His wife Adele Lack (played by Catherine Keener) is a painter who paints portraits very small (one inch) canvases. Their relationship is strained from not communicating. She heads off to Germany with their daughter to do a show and doesn’t return.
Caden wins a MacArthur Grant and decides to stage a play that is meaningful to him. He rents out a building that appears larger than a blimp hangar and starts to cast people as people in his life. To make this more real to him he builds a smaller replica of New York and the buildings which house the people in his life inside the hanger.
From here the film begins to lose its track, focus and bogs down in too much detail and replayed scenes. But the irony is that this is Caden’s problem anyway and eventually casts someone to play himself directing this ensemble while he is directing the ensemble. Sound odd?
It is but there are valid points made throughout this film, including how much time people spend waiting for the right thing to come along so that they can begin their lives instead of living it.
Charlie Kaufman wrote and directed this film and Hoffman is about the only actor I can think of who could make this film work at all. The cast is huge and pits some of our best actors in some different, odd, and challenging roles.
Overall: It is a long film, more than two hours, and requires patience and an open mind to sit through. Although I wouldn’t see it again, I’m glad I did.