Synecdoche, New York

I was originally going to title this, "I Lost My Synecdoche, New York," and make it seem like I lost the key to the place I share with New York. No, not the STD-ridden reality star New York, just New York the city. Anyway, to the point of this post. I just watched the film Synecdoche, New York. It was strange, hard to follow, and sad. It follows Caden Cotard, played by the talented Phillip Seymour Hoffman, as his life slowly spirals. After his wife leaves him to work in Berlin, he receives a MacArthur Grant with which he builds a model of his world, hiring actors to play the people in his life, including a guy who followed him for 20 years to play himself. The time span is non-linear, yet at the same time linear. The film is ripe with odd occurrences such as him reading the diary his daughter left though it is filled with events from her life in Germany, things she could not possibly have written in it. Its central theme seems to be death, but it could also be the complexity and oddness of life, or even the wish to observe our lives as though it were a show. It obviously brings to mind Shakespeare's quote of, "All the world's a stage, and all its men and women merely players." Indeed, this film tries to portray that. The ending is unexpected and confusing, yet anticipation ending and engaging. It leaves the mind to wonder. Was it all a dream? A show? Unreal?