User reviews

Usually I recommend people to not watch or read reviews, just enjoy the film in their own way. This one, though, is better if you are well prepared for it. It's a two hour fifteen minute film that requires another twenty minutes for the obligatory YouTube video that explains what you've just seen. Foundflix has a nice Explained for it, but watch or read whatever. Because you need to understand you are going to sit through the slow, oh so slow, dissolution of a man's mind, complete with heavy references to books and films and musicals, awkward scenes that make you want to skip forward, long internal monologues, the whole thing. It is also worth mentioning that this film is based of a book, one that is not written by Kaufman, but right up his alley. You might want to check that out before attempting to see the film.

Once you know you are going to see that, you won't feel cheated when finally starting to watch the movie and realizing it will not entertain you at all. Maybe it will make you ponder the nature of reality and inner life, maybe it will make you grab a gun and kill yourself or your parents, maybe it will make you write a dissertation on it, so other people get what you got or at least friends will honor you for surviving through it, but relaxing entertainment or any sort of pleasure that is not purely intellectual you will not get.

There are no twists at the end, the basic premise is made clear rather soon and from that moment you will wait for the film to end. There is no hero journey, no big reveal of information that will guide you through life, no story. The only beautiful thing in the movie is Jessie Buckley. So get into your Dostoyevski reading mood or whatever and only then attempt a viewing. Just trying on a whim and then complaining about it won't cut it. You have to work to see this film. Only when you're prepared to do that work will I recommend it to you.

The hardest part about watching this movie was trying to figure out why I was watching it. At the end, I had to look up interpretations, which I think took a lot of the magic and reflection out of what a movie should be. I wish it would've been a little less abstract, for those of us who watched it independently from the book, and aren't abstract minded enough to pull meaning out of thin air.

Other than not knowing what the hell was happening, the acting was phenomenal, and so was the dialogue. Now off to the library to try to get something useful out of this story.

This movie cannot stand alone. It is meaningless if you have not read the book. Kaufman spectacularly fails to bring the book to life as an independent story.

But the "spectacularly" in that sentence is not entirely about the failure... rather that he fails while presenting something rather spectacular. The film is gloriously beautiful in the way he brings symbolism and metaphor to life. It is gorgeously filmed and very well acted, although the pacing and editing could use a little less ego and a little more attention to flow. Other directors may have made some different choices in presenting those things that were more grounded in reality as opposed to those that were surreal. Instead, the whole thing was presented in such a state of hyperreality that finding the kernels of truth were impossible.

The biggest failures come in the stark omissions: Kaufman's refusal to share what question is being referred to in those phone calls where the disembodied voice says "there is only one question..." That question is critical and is specifically laid out in the book. It is the entire meaning and motivation. He also fails to ever tie back that question, and the titular phrase, to the only character to whom they actually matter. He also fails to show or explain explicitly what happened to that character in the end, and without that ending, there is no meaning. The film just becomes a very beautiful companion piece to the novel, highlighting some scenes and lending new imagery to them. It is not, in itself, a complete story. It's more of a "mood."

This was such a struggle to get through, and very unrewarding for doing so.

Since I've read the book, I knew what was going on. I also had no idea what was going on. Kaufman's adaptation was so bizarre and unforthcoming that it had me constantly checking how much time was left (too much was the answer)..

The first 20 something minutes are PAINFULLY slow, and the chemistry between the two main characters is so nonexistent yet they supposedly have this super deep connection. The character of Jake was so flat and mumbly - nothing like the sophisticated intellectual he was in the novel, but I tried to push that out of my mind. I was rapidly losing interest when the two finally arrived to Jake's parent's house, and there was a moment where I truly thought this movie was going to be incredible. Suddenly I was questioning what I was seeing, the unnervingly strange exchange between characters was unsettling and dread started creeping up in my chest. It stirred up the kind of uneasy feelings I got during my first viewing of Hereditary.

I'm a huge fan of strange movies that feel like a bad dream, not a nightmare necessarily, but a dream where things make sense but don't at the same time, and you have a pit in your stomach but don't know why. I like subtle strangeness, enough to pique your interest without beating you over the head with it. Unfortunately there quickly came a point when this movie catapulted over that fine line and became so frustratingly bizarre. It felt like it was trying to be Mulholland Drive. I am all for a strange trip of a movie but it has to be coherent enough to make sense in some way. If I didn't read the book I would have no idea what this movie meant or what was really happening, it just became too ridiculous for me to enjoy.

I presume people will talk about how bizarre it is on social media which will make people curious enough to watch it, but it was so unsatisfying and an overall waste of time.

Charlie Kaufman's latest weirdfest is from the point of view of a young woman going with her boyfriend to visit his parents. Almost the entire first half hour of the movie is them talking in the car. Seriously. They talk about art, she recites a poem, she muses to herself. It captures the weird tensions and bumpy flow of a strained relationship, but my God, it's like 25 minutes of that!

But I kept going, because there was something weird and intriguing about it all. And when they reach the parents, it gets way weirder. Events are surreal and everything in the house keeps ... changing in weird and unexpected ways.

Periodically we see an old guy at work. No explanation.

While it's all very strange, there is an emotional throughline in that it captures the weird discomfort of parents and dealing with people's baggage. It is a Kafka-esque relationship.

None of it seems to make sense, and the movie gets truly lunatic by the end. I had some vague ideas, but nothing close to an understanding of what was supposed to have happened. Still, I had generally enjoyed it and there were amazing moments.

Then I read the wikipedia plot summary for the novel this is based on, and that was helpful in understanding what had happened. And then I found a great Vanity Fair article that cleared up a lot more questions.

This is probably one of these movies you should watch twice if you want to figure it out for yourself. There really are clues that in retrospect gives some suggestion of what's going on. And if you know what's going on, it would be a different movie in a lot of ways.

Once I understood what I'd seen I could appreciate all the different levels this movie was dealing with in parallel.

My girlfriend didn't like the movie but couldn't stop talking about and analyzing it. It's definitely the kind of movie you need to talk about after.

Kaufman is uncompromising in his vision, which is why I suspect he'll never make anything as enjoyable as the movies that he scripted but didn't direct. But overall I'd recommend watching this, especially if you like or don't mind a lot of weirdness.

I felt like this movie was cobbled together by a second year English major that was given way too much marching powder over a long weekend. It is the most pretentious drivel I have ever had the displeasure of watching. The only accomplishment was made by the editors of the trailer that managed to make the film look enticing. They should either get an award or be brought up on fraud charges.

The story gets increasingly more bizarre. There are no explanations or closures either. I honestly don't know what I watched.

A young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself. (Via IMDb)

This might be the highest rating I give for a movie that I did not enjoy AT ALL. After I read some explanations about the movie I kind of loved it more but it was still one of the most boring movies I have ever seen.

The movie is so deep and it will make the audience very confused after they watch it, but that "confusion" was too much and over the limit in the movie. Sometimes you don't want to confuse the audience too much so the movie won't be boring to them and that's what happened to me in the movie, I got really bored that I couldn't wait for it to end, felt like the movie was 6 hours especially that the movie is very deep and heavy.

The film's runtime was the worst thing about it, 2h 14m is A LOT, I think if it was decreased to 1h 45m then it would have been better.

Although I didn't enjoy the movie at all, the film's cinematography, sound effects, set design, and custom designs are the ones that made me give the movie a rating of 7/10. The fact that it is a 4:3 frame makes it deeper, scarier, and way better, you will feel scared and confused because that frame is so narrow so it will build a lot of weird feeling inside of you. The film has a few frames that were very great and visually stunning. The different customs of "The Girlfriend" were beautiful, especially that one at the very beginning of the film when she was wearing a red coat. The design of the house was incredible. And the sound effects which gave the movie that scary taste, the sound of the wind or snow, the chains, and the windshield wipers were all some amazing details especially that the movie did not have a specific music soundtrack album.

The script was well written especially that it was written by the amazing Charlie Kaufman who is one of my favs. screenwriters. The movie had many lines and quotes that were so deep but the dialogues were sometimes very long which made some of them look boring because it's been going for a long time. Not saying that I did not enjoy these monologues, they were just too long.

The cast was perfect especially Jessie Buckley, she played her character very well and exactly how it should be played. Toni Collette (Plays The Mother) and David Thewlis (Plays The Father) were incredible especially Toni Collette's weird / scary / loud laugh.

"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" was quite a boring / long movie that I expected more from it. The movie did a great job of being scary and leaving the audience with many questions but I was expecting more.

My rating is 7/10

What a pompous load of trash. A film so arrogantly caught up in trying to be artistic and interesting, leaves you with Nothing instead... I even went looking to see if their was some great insight I missed, that was simply more time lost. I imagine groups of people reading in all sorts of interpretations of the events, patting themselves on the back for their elevated understanding of the events..in this case the king has no clothes, stop trying to see what is not there... And how can I unsee that movie.... I want my 2 hours back.

Anyone who's seen Charlie Kaufman's movies knows that he likes to play with the audience. In "Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation", "Synecdoche, New York" and "Anomalisa", it's often hard to tell what's real and what isn't. Such is the case in "I'm Thinking of Ending Things". This mind-bending look at a young woman who has a bizarre experience visiting her boyfriend's parents is enough to make you question your own sanity (especially the last twenty minutes).

It's not a great movie - it drags on a bit too long - but just see if you don't end up wondering what you just watched. Surrealism to the extreme, with Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, David Thewlis and Toni Collette putting on fine performances.

This movie was so bad, 2 hours and 14 minutes of my life wasted....I'm thinking of not watching another movie for a month.

Sure - after reading the helpful review on imdb that explains the plot, some of the film makes sense. And if you have read the book, Kaufman's surreal approach may be somewhat interesting. If you haven't, this is just a fevre dream that goes nowhere, and is clearly trying very hard to be intentionally incomprehensible. The acting is very good, but that's where the positives end.

Important note: this is not like watching David Lynch at his most weird, where the paranoia is genuine and tongue-in-cheek and the search for meaning a lost cause, but more like a deliberate attempt to confuse the viewer, by withholding information and concealing (WHY) a story that is actually there. And that just feels like vain self-indulgence

This was quite challenging to sit through, and I say this with utmost respect to all the talented minds involved in here. Whilst I understand the intentions behind the project, the execution did not resonate with me as I had hoped or rather preferred.

Almost 95% of the screenplay is dedicated to lengthy discussions and character interactions that eventually become stagnant, redundant too as there was nothing exciting taking place from a visual standpoint.

Now, I do not necessarily have an aversion to dialogue-driven scripts, but there needs to be some context behind the words to make them meaningful, make them worthy. Otherwise, they would come across as nonsensical, nothing but gibberish, which unfortunately is the case down here.

Despite my best efforts to connect with the lead characters through dialogues, I struggled to find coherence in the overall story. Perhaps my lack of empathy towards our two protagonists further exacerbated the issue.

Make no mistake, I do have great admiration for both Buckley and Plemons, having enjoyed their performances in previous movies, but not here!