MOVIE · 2008

Synecdoche, New York

Drama124 min

Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a theater director in Schenectady, is unraveling at home and at work when a grant gives him the chance to stage something enormous: a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse. As the production expands, so do the mirrors between Caden’s life and the one he’s trying to put onstage, with years slipping by and reality turning increasingly unstable. Catherine Keener is his estranged wife Adele, while Samantha Morton’s Hazel circles in and out of his orbit. Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, the film turns mortality, art, and daily routine into a maze of rehearsal, memory, and self-invention.