Nothing can prepare you for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s stunningly emotional performance in Synecdoche, New York. You can see the desperation in his eyes the minute the film rolls, I know I saw it. Despite professional success, a wife, and a child, Caden Cotard, a theater director, is not a happy man, he doesn’t know how to be happy. Constantly worried about his health, his hypochondriac nature takes the best of him.
Caden is praised for his reimagining of Death of a Salesman, mainly for using younger actors, and is given a McArthur Genius Grant, which sets the film in motion, as his personal life starts falling apart.
