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I'm Thinking of Ending Things

  • 2020
  • R
  • 2h 14m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
106K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
2,168
305
Jessie Buckley in I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Despite second thoughts about their relationship, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) takes a road trip with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm. Trapped at the farm during a snowstorm with Jake’s mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis), the young woman begins to question the nature of everything she knew or understood about her boyfriend, herself, and the world.
Play trailer2:27
3 Videos
99+ Photos
Psychological DramaPsychological ThrillerDramaThriller

Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.

  • Director
    • Charlie Kaufman
  • Writers
    • Charlie Kaufman
    • Iain Reid
  • Stars
    • Jesse Plemons
    • Jessie Buckley
    • Toni Collette
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    106K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    2,168
    305
    • Director
      • Charlie Kaufman
    • Writers
      • Charlie Kaufman
      • Iain Reid
    • Stars
      • Jesse Plemons
      • Jessie Buckley
      • Toni Collette
    • 1.3KUser reviews
    • 233Critic reviews
    • 78Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 13 wins & 104 nominations total

    Videos3

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:27
    Official Trailer
    I'm Thinking of Ending Things
    Trailer 2:30
    I'm Thinking of Ending Things
    I'm Thinking of Ending Things
    Trailer 2:30
    I'm Thinking of Ending Things
    The Most Anticipated Movies and TV Shows to Stream in September
    Clip 3:27
    The Most Anticipated Movies and TV Shows to Stream in September

    Photos217

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    Top cast33

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    Jesse Plemons
    Jesse Plemons
    • Jake
    Jessie Buckley
    Jessie Buckley
    • Young Woman
    Toni Collette
    Toni Collette
    • Mother
    David Thewlis
    David Thewlis
    • Father
    Guy Boyd
    Guy Boyd
    • Janitor
    Hadley Robinson
    Hadley Robinson
    • Laurey…
    Gus Birney
    Gus Birney
    • Aunt Eller…
    Abby Quinn
    Abby Quinn
    • Tulsey Town Girl 3
    Colby Minifie
    Colby Minifie
    • Yvonne
    Anthony Robert Grasso
    Anthony Robert Grasso
    • Diner Manager
    • (as Anthony Grasso)
    Teddy Coluca
    Teddy Coluca
    • Diner Customer
    Jason Ralph
    Jason Ralph
    • Yvonne's Boyfriend
    Oliver Platt
    Oliver Platt
    • The Voice
    • (voice)
    Frederick Wodin
    • Dancing Janitor
    • (as Fredrick E. Wodin)
    Ryan Steele
    • Dancing Jake
    Unity Phelan
    Unity Phelan
    • Dancing Young Woman
    Norman Aaronson
    Norman Aaronson
    • Diner Patron
    • (uncredited)
    Ashlyn Alessi
    Ashlyn Alessi
    • Audience Member
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Charlie Kaufman
    • Writers
      • Charlie Kaufman
      • Iain Reid
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews1.3K

    6.5105.6K
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    Featured reviews

    CinemaClown

    A Tedious, Frustrating & Convoluted Mess

    Strange, bewildering & full of misgivings, I'm Thinking of Ending Things only gets more awkward & confusing as it progresses but it still creates enough intrigue for the viewers to stick around and see if the whole ordeal of sitting through the film is worth it in the end. Now I don't know about the others but my answer to that is a plain & simple no.

    Written & directed by Charlie Kaufman, it's only sensible to expect the unexpected when journeying into one of his stories but unlike the clever ideas & concepts that he came up with to explore existentialism in his earlier works, there is no structure to this story. It is just a hotchpotch of thoughts & impressions thrown into the mix and presented without consideration.

    The film still brims with a sense of foreboding for the most part if not all and is at its most interesting during the farmhouse scene, thanks to the remarkable talents on screen. David Thewlis & Toni Collette easily steal the show while Jessie Buckley & Jesse Plemons do their best to keep things running. One might expect the story to unfurl its mysteries in the end but this one simply refuses to.

    Overall, I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a tedious, frustrating & convoluted mess that defies any logic & understanding and unfolds like a series of thought process simultaneously going inside a troubled mind that doesn't know how to stop them. A bizarre, surreal & confounding experience that keeps getting weirder as it nears its conclusion, Charlie Kaufman's latest film may dazzle his fans with its allegories but it sure isn't for me.
    Gordon-11

    I don't know what I watched

    The story gets increasingly more bizarre. There are no explanations or closures either. I honestly don't know what I watched.
    svrao-47802

    What does it mean?

    I may be obtuse, but will please somebody explain, is there a purpose to this movie?
    8evanston_dad

    Mind Officially Blown

    Charlie Kaufman channels David Lynch in this eerie, creepy relationship drama that really knows how to get under your skin.

    Jessie Buckley, who gave an award-worthy performance in "Wild Rose" last year, does so again here, as a woman meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time. Much of the film takes place in his car, as they travel to and from his childhood home in an Oklahoma blizzard. These scenes give Buckley and Jessie Plemmons, also giving a terrific performance as her boyfriend, long exchanges of dialogue that tease out the dynamic of this particular relationship, and the dynamic between men and women in general, and a dissection of the film "A Woman Under the Influence" (Buckley recites Pauline Kael's review of the film in character as Gena Rowlands), and includes a stop at an isolated ice cream stand, the film's most Lynchian moment, where a girl with a rash gives Buckley a vague warning. Much of the rest of the film takes place in Plemmons' parents house, where David Thewlis and Toni Collette play versions of Plemmons' mom and dad at all ages, from perky housewife to doddering dementia to dying in a hospital bed, and host perhaps one of the most awkward dinners ever to appear in a film. Then there are the scenes set in Plemmons' old high school, where a janitor (Plemmons as an old man?) roams the halls and doubles of Buckley and Plemmons reenact the ballet scene from "Oklahoma!" in the school corridors.

    What is "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" about? If that's the first question you ask before deciding whether or not to watch a movie, you won't like this one. I imagine different people will think it's about different things. Certainly it's about getting old. It's also about getting old without the comfort of believing that life has any purpose, or that there's anything waiting for us in the great beyond. It's about women and their relationships with men. It's about Jessie Buckley's character. Until it's not and it's instead about Jessie Plemmons' character, who gets the final scene of the film all to himself, a rendition of the song "Lonely Room" (again from "Oklahoma!") during which he comes to the conclusion that the fantasies on which we build our lives don't exist and we have to take whatever we can to most closely approximate them. It's a claustrophobic and deeply unsettling film, as much because of its aesthetics as because of its enigmatic mysteries.

    Is it a good film? I think it's very good, but I will admit that it didn't linger in my head as much as I thought it would while I was watching it. It kind of made my skin crawl in the moment, but it left me feeling like I was going to get all there was to get from it on a first viewing, and it didn't leave me wanting to watch it again to untangle its riddles.

    Grade: A
    6tornado-96879

    I wish I had read the book

    The hardest part about watching this movie was trying to figure out why I was watching it. At the end, I had to look up interpretations, which I think took a lot of the magic and reflection out of what a movie should be. I wish it would've been a little less abstract, for those of us who watched it independently from the book, and aren't abstract minded enough to pull meaning out of thin air.

    Other than not knowing what the hell was happening, the acting was phenomenal, and so was the dialogue. Now off to the library to try to get something useful out of this story.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to director Charlie Kaufman, Netflix pushed back against the film's 1.37:1 aspect ratio because they were concerned that viewers would think there was something wrong with their TV.
    • Goofs
      With the snow storm going on during most of his shift, the janitor would have had more of an accumulation of snow on his pickup than the amount (a little more than a dusting) that he quickly brushed off after his shift.
    • Quotes

      Young Woman: It's tragic how few people possess their souls before they die. Nothing is more rare in any man, says Emerson, than an act of his own. And it's quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. That's an Oscar Wilde quote.

    • Crazy credits
      There's a post-credits scene.
    • Connections
      Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Jessie Buckley/David Walliams/Octavia Spencer/Frank Gardner/Bill Bailey/Dermot Kennedy (2020)
    • Soundtracks
      Peabody's Improbable History
      Written by Frank Comstock (as Frank G. Cornstock)

      Courtesy of DreamWorks Animation

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    FAQ17

    • How long is I'm Thinking of Ending Things?Powered by Alexa
    • Should I read the book before watching the film?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 4, 2020 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Pienso en el final
    • Filming locations
      • Red Line Diner - 588 Route 9, Fishkill, New York, USA("movie in a movie" scene)
    • Production companies
      • Likely Story
      • Projective Testing Service
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 14 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Atmos
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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