Synecdoche, New York: an emotional mind-bender as only the mind of Charlie Kaufman could produce. The story is interesting and the pain, palpable, but the high concept and extreme oddity make it harder to connect emotionally. Visually rich, as it needs to be to convey the world the characters live in. It is a great-looking cast, doing their best with the complex material; Philip Seymour Hoffman (Gone too soon. The choice of watching this film at this particular moment, obviously, is not coincidental. It certainly augments the pain the film already transmits) makes the whole gel.