synecdoche n. a figure of speech in which a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part

Maybe Charlie Kaufman arrogantly believes that he has the power to be universal from the starting point of his individual characters. He could not be more misguided.

I have not seen anything so inane, boring and vaguely offensive for a long time and all under the guise of an it-must-be-briliant-and-intellectual-if-it-contains-such-wacky-ideas film. If I am to be honest, it annoyed me and bored me so much that I only watched a little more than half, so -in the case of there being a dramatic twist or change of direction- my criticism may not be such trustworthy material concerning the rest of the film.

Admittedly Kaufman's writing debut was the quirky and entertaining Being John Malkovich but unfortunately his directorial debut is not a patch on the former, and he rehashes similar formulas but the ideas lack vibrancy, relevance and integrity.

I decided to rate this film as a generous one out of ten, rather than a zero, because I liked the idea of someone buying a house which was on fire. As well as recognising that the central idea of recreating New York in a theatre-set has far more potential than done justice to it.

The underlying male chauvinism in the depiction of women was a big added irritation. Phillip Seymore Hoffman's pathetic and grotesque character has a string of attractive women incredibly throwing themselves at him. The only intelligent woman who is not reduced to sex or motherhood only is probably a lesbian and, finally, when he find his estranged daughter she is selling her body to a long queue of gapping men. This made the whole just too much to be worth wasting more time on.