I'm Thinking of Ending Things
2020 · Directed by Charlie Kaufman
Original language: English
- mystery
- thriller
- drama
The story
Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm.
What it’s like
Snowbound and washed in cold blue-grey, this film moves through long, unbroken takes of car interiors, empty highways, and a farmhouse whose rooms feel too still and too bright under flat overhead light. Its camera lingers and drifts, often holding on a face or a doorway for uncomfortably long, while the score leans on sparse piano, creaking silence, and sudden, jarring snatches of pop songs. The mood is melancholy and uneasy, a slow slide into surrealism where time bends and small domestic details, a bowl of tapioca or a dance sequence, take on a dreamlike weight. The pace is deliberately languid and repetitive, the kind of picture that rewards late-night, lights-low viewing alone or a second watch to catch what shifts between scenes. Its people are caught in quiet, self-deceiving loops, and the emotional register stays cool, wry, and mournful rather than warm. Intensity is low on physical violence but high on dread and unease, with a few brief, disquieting references to death and despair, and no gore. It suits viewers who want philosophical, poetic, puzzle-like cinema and are comfortable sitting with ambiguity and discomfort.
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