Very minor spoilers only - I don't give anything significant away

Charlie Kaufman strikes gold again. The writer of the brilliant films Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind now has a 4th brilliant film to his credit, not bad going out of only 6 written. He directed this one too.

The marvellous Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as a theatre director. Like all of us, he’s playing himself - “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts...”. He sees others acting, they see him, and the performances get modified. He is directing a play, but it’s not a play, it’s real life, which is a play. etc. The result is a surreal and metaphysical journey through his life and his play and the boundaries of reality blur and fall away just as our daily acts break down as we age, both physically and mentally. It manages the difficult trick of being both funny and sad at the same time.

Like some of the most powerful works of cinematic art, this film deals with what it means to be a living human. It's on a grand scale but it's also intimate and personal. It's about everyone and it's about each of us, our effort, our loneliness, our disappointment. I wrote a review of the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece "Mirror" some time ago, in which I said this:

“Tarkovsky said “This is a film about you”. He made a film about everyone by making a film about himself and his own memories. It is deeply personal and simultaneously about each and every one of us”

I could have written those same thoughts about Synecdoche New York, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Kaufman was influenced by Tarkovsky, and also David Lynch, because of their use of memory and the importance of dreams.

This is great cinema and has a great deal of depth. Kaufman said the film is best watched "in a dream-like state" and that is, I think, the key to it. The story appears to jump and there are many little details in it, but it all hangs together perfectly if you've been paying attention. It's certainly a film that could withstand repeat viewings and I'm certain you'd see more in it with every viewing. I will certainly be buying the dvd.

I think Kaufman is one of the best screenwriters there has ever been and this film is brilliantly written. Like his other films, this one is also about the human mind and what it means to be alive and individual in a society.

This film is not for everyone. If you like a simple story where characters have goals to accomplish and succeed against the odds, you won’t find that here. If you like a film presented to you on a plate for easy consumption, you won’t find that here. If you want something light and joyous, you won’t find that here. It has been called a “mess”. But if you want to see a work of cinematic art, be made to reflect on life and living, be given a host of memorable images and be made to laugh, then perhaps this film is for you. It’s provocative, fascinating and the acting is first-rate. The music contributes well to the atmosphere without being loud and intrusive like it all too often is in American films these days.

Genius, 9.5/10.

Cheers, Tom.