I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is a movie that just dropped on Netflix on September 4, 2020. The movie is based off of Iain Reid’s 2016 book by the same name. In short, the book and movie is about a girl going to meet her boyfriend’s parents for the first time.
Charlie Kaufman wrote the screen play and directed this film, you make recognize him from his other works like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich. Before jumping into this analysis, I will start by saying that this article will contain spoilers, so if you have not read the book or seen this movie, you’ve been warned.
As someone that read the book before the movie (yes, I’m one of those people) there are clear differences from both mediums. For instance, the endings are very different.
One thing the movie does a great job of doing is tricking the audience into believing the story is solely from Lucy’s (the girlfriend’s) perspective. The first twenty minutes of the film are set driving to the parents’ house. It’s just Jake and Lucy sitting in the car discussing a variety of topics.
Usually when films contain long scenes set in a single setting it loses the audience. I found that this film did the opposite, since the two were engaging in interesting dialogue. It personally kept me on the edge of my seat, especially by showing all the quirky landscapes of the town which we now know were just figments of Jake’s imagination.
If you are not a fan of thrillers but like the adrenaline of scary movies, this film is perfect for you. No jump scares, and no cheap tactics. This movie is the perfect mixture of the powers of cinematography, lighting and script all bundled into one beautiful present.
The lighting throughout the movie is typically very dark and dreadful with hints of blue during scenes that only contain Jake and Lucy. This plays into two major themes of the movie which are loneliness and fantasy.
Throughout the movie we discover that Jake is in fact the janitor and everything leading up to the last couple minutes of the film is Jake recalling what his life could have been. For example, what his life could have been if he asked the cute waitress in the bar for her number or to go on a date.
We see this towards the start of the movie when we see a janitor eating alone in a classroom watching a film where a boy makes a big romantic gesture to a waitress. Jake romanticized every aspect of his life and Lucy was only a made-up figure of Jake’s imagination.
The audience may catch this towards the start of the movie when Lucy sees a picture of a younger version of herself hanging on the wall and asks Jake why a picture of her is in the house. When she turns back to the picture it has changed to a photo of a young Jake. This is the first of many clues that Lucy may not be a real person.
Lucy is not only someone who Jake fantasizes being with but she also represents what Jake never was. All the qualities in Lucy are what Jake wishes he was more of. For example, when everyone is sitting at the dinner table the topic of Lucy’s paintings are brought up.
The mother is obviously very supportive while the father isn’t. He questions how a painting can be sad without someone looking sad in it. This states that the father has only surface level interactions and understanding of Jake while the mother understands Jake on a deeper level which is why he cares for her in her elderly age, while the father is not seen in his elderly state.
Later on in the film Lucy enters Jake’s childhood bedroom where there are movie posters, books, films, etc. This can explain why Jake is such a dreamer. All these mediums make their way into the movie, all the media you consume shapes your worldview and how you interact in society.
Switching to the end of the film there is a huge nod to the musical Oklahoma!. When they are in the car at the beginning of the film they listen to a song from Oklahoma!. During this scene Jake explains that this musical is big where he is from and that the high school performs it every couple years.
Towards the end of the film there is also an interpretive dance sequence through the halls of the school, enforcing the idea of what Jake’s life could have been. In this scene, everything is dreamy and romantic up until the janitor arrives.
As I have discussed earlier Jake is the janitor, and this shows Jake is literally crushing his own dreams where he is left to clean up the mistakes of his life. This is a loose reference to the dream ballet from the musical. This dance sequence in the musical is a dream filled scene that tells the story of a playful dreamer falling in love and the circumstances pulling them apart. This is also one of the many mixed medias imbedded throughout the movie.
The second clear reference to the musical Oklahoma! is when Jake sings a song called Lonely Room at the end of the movie. Here, Jake sings in front of all his peers after accepting the Nobel peace prize. In the musical, this song is typically sung by the character Jud Fry the antagonist. Both Jud Fry and Jake are antagonists of their own life filled with fantasy and loneliness.
At the end of the song, while the crowd is cheering, the screen slowly starts to turn blue and brings us to a still shot of a car covered in snow in front of the school. By this still, it is understood that Jake did in fact end his life by stripping down naked in his car during the snowstorm (hypothermia).
This final still shot of the movie looks exactly like one of Jake’s paintings. All of his paintings are fairly light and colourful, but have deep undertones of sadness, as they are kept in the basement.
When the father quotes “How can a picture of a field be sad without a sad person looking sad in a field”, this is a perfect example of the final shot of the movie. Although there are bright colours and there is an eerie vibe of peacefulness, it is overall a sad shot, as the audience knows Jake is buried underneath the snow, however we know Jake is now at peace.
I could really go on, and on about all the connections made in this film, because really everything holds meaning, but I just found these examples were the more monumental findings. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is one of those movies that no matter how many times you watch it, something new will pop out at you that makes you question how Jake got to the ending and why he made the decisions he did.
This isn’t like any other psychological thriller you’ve seen before. If you don’t enjoy the story there are so many other aspects of the movie to enjoy such as the word play (yes there is humor in this movie), the set design, costumes, a stand out performance from Jesse Plemons, the soundtrack, the lighting, and the directing.
After an almost five-year hiatus Charlie Kaufman really out did himself with this one. This is a must watch especially leading up to Halloween. If this isn’t already on your list, add it. It might not be a classic slasher film like Halloween or Scream but you should keep this and all of Iain Reid’s other work on your radar as this won’t be the last, of you hearing about him.
– Maddy O’Toole
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