I’m Thinking of Ending Things

During an extended road-trip sequence through the snowy countryside, our troubled protagonist stares out the window and mutters to herself: “It’s beautiful out here, in a bleak, heartbroken kind of way.”

That pretty much sums up I’m Thinking of Ending Things, a dark and deeply introspective psychodrama in which notoriously eccentric filmmaker and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Charlie Kaufman sardonically ruminates on the human condition.

Beneath its surface quirks, this melancholy character study is a well-acted and powerfully understated examination of fragile relationship dynamics, both among couples and families.

As she rides shotgun, a painter and aspiring physicist (Jessie Buckley) keeps repeating the film’s title during a persistently misanthropic inner monologue. She also repeats how she adores her geeky new boyfriend, Jake (Jesse Plemons), although that sincerity is questionable.

They’re seated next to one another physically, of course, but emotionally they’re much more distant. As details and secrets are gradually revealed, it seems their romance spawned more from desperation than genuine attraction.

Their destination is the rural home belonging to Jake’s elderly parents (David Thewlis and Toni Collette), who’d like to meet his girlfriend for the first time. However, during their visit, she apparently begins to experience hallucinations that blur the line between fantasy and reality.

Slowly her life spirals into a surreal nightmare of brutal self-examination. And what to make of visions involving a school janitor (Guy Boyd) and a handful of mischievous students?

Kaufman’s script, adapted from a book by Canadian novelist Iain Reid, somehow makes the mundane seem profound. The dialogue is rambling yet also quietly perceptive.

With that said, it’s not for all tastes. Besides the head-scratching oddities you’d expect from any Kaufman film, the result might feel self-indulgent and ponderous to those not on the same emotional wavelength.

Even as the film relishes in the awkwardness of its interactions, both real and imagined, richly textured performances by Buckley (Wild Rose) and Plemons (Other People) help to keep it grounded.

The material might fit equally well on stage, but then you’d be missing some of the striking visuals within the film’s condensed TV-friendly aspect ratio.

Using the neuroses of the average movie relationship as a jumping-off point, Kaufman takes simple and familiar narrative concepts in subversive new directions. More ambitious — and amusing — than it initially seems, I’m Thinking of Ending Things finds rewards in its risks.

Rated R, 134 minutes.