Synecdoche, New York plot analysis

We can extract its meaning from its title in Synecdoche, New York (2008, Charlie Kaufman) the film stands in for the play stands in for Caden stands in for Adele Hazel Olive Ellen et al.

 

There’s a moment CADEN COTTARD dictates to his assistant the play should all take place in the course of a single day. This is the key to understanding the narrative. At the very end of the movie when Caden is Ellen walking and a note he receives from Ellen as Caden is Now you are here it’s 7:43 Now you are here it’s 7:44 Now you are. Gone.
     And as Caden sits on that bench talking to the actress playing Ellen’s mother he looks over and sees a spray paint tagged brick wall of a clock with its hands reading 7:45. The very first scene in Synecdoche, New York is an alarm clock at 7:44 AM that goes off at 7:45 AM. Near the end when Ellen auditions for the role of Caden she says Caden Cottard is a man already dead. He lives in a half world between stasis and anti-stasis. And time is concentrated. Chronology confused. 
     The entire film is the play itself. And a pretty damn funny one at that. Full of Kaufman wordplay existential dexterity. Like when the psychiatrist played by Hope Davis probes Is that why you killed yourself? Then corrects herself foreshadows SAMMY as Caden committing suicide by jumping off that roof. And Caden emphatically repeating I didn’t jump! Between stasis and anti-stasis. Everyone is everyone. Every day is every day.
     Other evidence that supports emphasizes it’s all a play is the way Sammy turns away from our angle to jump on the other side of the building we don’t see. So the film can conveniently cut to the aftermath. And the way in which at the funeral of Caden’s mother his dad is there and he mutters that his father shouldn’t be there because he’s already dead similarly reflects this as well. 
     

Can I start all over again?

Claustrophobic somber bleak domestic melodrama. Existential undertow dragging you into the abyss. Dive right in. How did the resolution in Tokyo Sonata (2008, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) make you feel? Cathartic? Exhilarated? Or worst. Life affirming? Okay have fun with that.

 

The mom holds everything together. Tokyo Sonata is about power structures. Dismantling authority. Or keeping up appearances in order to preserve said authority. Or in its nuanced portrait of this nuclear family both.
     The climax Tokyo Sonata builds to is the mother father and youngest son all make an attempt to escape but are unable to as if they have a biological shock collar that prevents them from doing so. The moral paradox society is built on values encompassing family and government yet despite what happens when these are corrosive destructive within they still serve their purpose. And dare I say a greater good. Structurally there’s some fun stuff to delve into.
     The obvious is the contrast between the dad hiding losing his job and the youngest son hiding taking piano lessons. The dad going from salaryman breadwinner to bum is a variation of an anxiety Kiyoshi Kurosawa mines on other occasions. And it remains more unsettling than his supernatural existential horror. But there’s a huge twist here. Just observe where he’s at after that four months later jump and you’ll see what I mean. Anyway the mom seeing the dad at the hobocamp and discovering that the youngest son has been spending his lunch money on piano also feels like she’s in some remote way analogous to the uh USA.
     The mom collects intelligence. How? Unlike the dad she crosses borders. Like the US invading Afghanistan and Iraq she goes into both of their sons’ rooms. This sets up the uproarious irony that she actually succeeds in her campaigns whereas the oldest son literally joining up with the US Army deployed to the Middle East let’s say not so much.
     There’s also somewhat of an ironic twist with the home invasion brigand played by Kôji Yakusho. It’s like out of desperation the mom runs off with him only to be confronted with the harsh truth that he’s a failure at business and impotent so basically her husband. And that he’s a misanthrope and antisocial so basically her youngest son. Fate the architect of what it’s to be for her and there’s no escape. Although this does provide the catalyst for her arc growth assimilation acceptance appreciation.
 
Clearly the moral in the end of Tokyo Sonata is instead of trying to run away out of desperation and start over with a brand new life escaping your miserable old one what you really ought to do is love life and see that each new sunrise is an opportunity to start over by trying to do better. To be better. And how isn’t this life affirming?
     Because it’s too late. The authority has already been undermined. Even for me some of the ultradarkest humor is when the doc bandages up the youngest son the dad pushed down a flight of stairs says he has a concussion but otherwise he’s fine. Talking about a concussion like he skinned his knee falling of a tricycle. Think about it why after the boy’s finished with the recital does no one applaud?
 
Okay yes I guess my dark sense of humor is too morbid but get a load of how the mom has a nightmare of the oldest son coming home from the Middle East PTSD morally shattered because of killing too many people. Then the reality turns out far worse. Irony of ironies the mom reads that letter from the oldest son and the tone could be described as quaint perhaps we find out along with her that he’s doing well after being sent home by the Army.
     Except he instead chooses to join up with Islamic Extremist terrorists in Iraq just to get to learn what it’s like for them. I’m sorry that’s still the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.