Millicent: What was once before you- an exciting, mysterious future, is now behind you. Lived, understood, disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone's experience........As the people who adore you stop adoring you; as they die; as they move on; as you shed them; as you shed your beauty, your youth; as the world forgets you; as you recognize your transience; as you begin to lose your characteristics one by one; as you learn there is no one watching you, and there never was, you think only about driving- not coming from any place, not arriving at any place. Just driving, counting off time. Now you are here at 7:43. Now you are here at 7:44. Now you are ....gone.
Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is, in the words of Millicent (Claire Keen), "a man already dead, living in a half-world between stasis and anti-stasis.....Up until recently he has strived valiantly to make sense of his situation, but now he has turned to stone." When his wife, Adele (Catherine Keener), leaves him along with her daughter Olive to "be around joyous people", his life slowly starts to disintegrate, as does his physical health. His doctor tells him he suffers from a condition where he cannot salivate or cry. He starts losing all sense of time. A year after, when Hazel (Samantha Morton) asks him out, he mentions its only been a week after his wife & daughter left. We see him dragging along, consumed by thoughts of his impending death.
Feeling alone and misunderstood, Caden finds no one to relate to. He enters into one relationship after another in search of companionship, while being completely oblivious to the needs of his various partners. His self-indulgence and self-pity eventually become too much to bear for everyone around him. Although Hazel has been one person who has always been loyal and loves him unconditionally, even while she is married to someone else. In his darkest hour, he receives the MacArthur award for his brilliance. He intends to spend all this money in planning a grand project which will be about his life and the various people who have been a part of and an influence on his life. As he spends years on this project, we see the actors who play the parts of his family and acquaintances also becoming a part of his life, and in turn being played by other actors. This is Kaufman's surrealism at its best. When Caden feels disturbed by thoughts of having abandoned his daughter, he tries to find her, only to see her working in a porn booth. Just like his own life, his daughter's has also disintegrated and she is on her death bed after a life of drug abuse. He feels wronged when he learns that her mother had lied to her all along about her father being gay. And finally the time comes when after spending a night with Hazel, she too dies in her sleep. Caden remarks that the day before Hazel's death must be the happiest day of his life and he has realized how to finalize the play...... However grand his project might be, we never see his play coming to an end, even though his life does.
This is Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut and probably is his best work, even though some would favor Adaptation. Unlike other sad and depressing movies/books that I have watched or read (Blasphemy by Tehmima Durrani and Requiem for a Dream are the ones that come to my mind), I could watch this movie over and over again.
Rating: 8.5/10
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