explanation of im thinking of ending things

This is made clearer in a scene where the young woman speaks to the janitor and tells him she can’t remember Jake.Īccording to the movie’s production notes, director Kaufman also suggests that the movie explores the idea of people projecting their own ideals onto partners about who they think they are and should be.Īs much of what is happening is from inside the mind of the janitor, this somewhat explains why facts keep changing, perspectives shift and time seems to move forward or backwards – life inside the mind and memory is never straightforward.

This explains why details about her, such as her name, keep changing – the Janitor is understood to be imagining what might have been with a woman he barely knew. Casts: Toni Collette, David Thewlis, Guy Boyd, Jason Ralph, Monica Ayres. The character played by Buckley is someone he met at a trivia night decades earlier, but who he did not actually get to know. Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm. Guy Boyd as Janitor in I’m Thinking of Ending Things.

The original novel sheds more light on this idea, which is relatively hard to pick up from the film. He is now in a position of reevaluating his life and what could have been. The janitor is actually Jake, imagining his younger self in dreamt up scenarios. The name of the movie, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, may in fact refer to the janitor considering ending his life. While we mainly see things from Buckley’s character’s viewpoint, it is apparently the janitor (Guy Boyd) who appears occasionally, who’s mind the events are really happening inside, according to The Guardian. Although, this is something that will be challenged as we delve deeper. But what’s really happening?īuckley’s character is referred to by several names during the film, including Lucy, Lucia and Louisa, and it seems to be her perspective the story is told from. Many weird things occur, such as Jake’s parents changing from being old dementia patients to younger versions of themselves, and a photograph on a shelf of a child that Jake claims is him and Buckley’s character claims looks like her. While at the distinctly creepy setting, complete with a dog who won’t stop shaking his fur, she begins to raise existential questions in her mind about their relationship, as well as what she knows about life and the world at large. David Thewlis stars as Father and Toni Collette as stars Mother in I’m Thinking Of Ending Things. As the name of the film suggests, she seems to be considering ending the relationship.

Explanation of im thinking of ending things