SYNECDOCHE, NY: GREAT PLACE TO VISIT, BUT I WOULDN'T WANT TO LIVE THEREMerriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines "synecdoche" as: "a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (as society for high society), the species for the genus (as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (as boards for stage).
Was that confusing for you? Try watching the film. From the man who brought us Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for your entertainment pleasure, welcome to Synecdoche, NNY. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Caden Cotard, a theater director given a grant to produce his life's opus. A dream becomes a dream which becomes and dream and so on until the boundary between reality and fantasy disappear. Giving up the fight for meaning and structure, the once confusing movie became clear. It is a search for the meaning of life and trying to understand ourselves. But, the meaning comes from the search, not an answer.
Half-Bite: Purely an existential movie, not for the faint of heart or mind.
