Aug. 28, 2020|United States|135 Min.|R
Genre: Drama;Thriller
Description: “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is a 2020 film that follows a young woman who considers ending her seven-week relationship with her boyfriend, Jake, during a trip to visit his parents at their farm. During the drive, Jake recites a poem from his youth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” and insists she share one of her own poems, which she does—a dark piece about returning home. Upon arriving at the farm, Jake recounts a grim story about pigs dying from maggots.
The film alternates between this narrative and scenes of an elderly janitor working at a high school, where he observes rehearsals for “Oklahoma!” and watches a romantic comedy. At the farmhouse, the young woman notices scratches on the basement door. Over dinner with Jake’s parents, she discusses her landscape paintings and how she met Jake at a trivia night, though inconsistencies arise in her story. She later finds a childhood photo of Jake but is confused, momentarily recognizing the child as herself.
Throughout the night, Jake’s parents inexplicably shift between stages of aging. When the woman goes to the basement to wash a nightgown, she discovers janitor uniforms and posters for Ralph Albert Blakelock exhibitions featuring paintings identical to her own. She receives cryptic calls from a mysterious voice with a single question to answer.
On the drive back, Jake references events the woman doesn’t recall and accuses her of drinking too much wine. Their conversation evolves into a critical analysis of John Cassavetes’s “A Woman Under the Influence.”
Cast director: Charlie Kaufman
Cast actor: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis, Guy Boyd, Hadley Robinson, Gus Birney, Abby Quinn, Colby Minifie, Anthony Grasso
Original name: I’m Thinking of Ending Things