Lorebaiting, or, Don’t Watch “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”
Tags: Film, Film Reviews, Charlie Kaufman

I’m Thinking of Ending Things has been called a psychological horror. Having read the plot summary of the book it might be, but the movie definitely isn’t. The movie is a postmodern salad that consists of a bunch of different things thrown into one movie with the hope people enjoy watching the lead actors and listening to the lead actress’ monologue. Which is a shame, you know. Because it might’ve actually been quite fun to watch a film where the main character realises she’s a fictional character based on a single interaction in a bar. The problem is that the movie definitely includes some things that are about this:

The lead character doesn’t have a consistent name (as though her author never quite decided what she’d be called). Her backstory varies a lot… from farm to apartment building and back to farm (again, because the author never quite figured out who the original person was). The meet cute seems to have several different versions and one is definitely based on a film that exists in universe and was directed by Robert Zemeckis (the author is running out of ideas… presumably unsatisfied by this tension between his politics, liberal, and his actions, where he wants to continue writing the story but knows it’s based on problems). There are some signs the author has entertained the notion that she (the original inspiration) was never interested in him in the first place… “girlfriend” & “anniversary” but also the “I wish my boyfriend was there” speech. and probably some other things but I want to move on… oh, wait, definitely should mention the continually changing field of study.

The problem with saying the film actually is about this is that it’s… just not. The film isn’t about anything in particular. It could be the main character’s mind just constantly churning through what she thinks her life could be like if she doesn’t end things with Jake (with a particular fixation on what Jake’s home life is like)… and she hasn’t got a clear grip on time because she spends all her time in her head. It could be basically anything since the film doesn’t give answers. Thus, I turn to this definition of queerbaiting:

Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment[6] in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation.[7]

Now, I’m going to be perfectly frank here… I think a lot of queerbaiting (perhaps even most) is completely self-inflicted and relies on deliberately ignoring, explaining away or otherwise rejecting textual details. This is particularly true of Supernatural and Sherlock… although, yes, it’s reasonable to argue that Castiel did eventually end up fancying Dean (which makes everything Destiel related retroactively queerbaiting so, um, yay?). But the idea of queerbaiting is sound. It’s a specific version of making an audience think they’re watching/reading something they’re not. I’m Thinking of Ending Things does this too. Except its problem isn’t queerbaiting… it’s more like genrebaiting.

Genrebaiting isn’t a word of my own invention. Not exactly. I came up with it just now, but it turns out that at least one other person uses it in nearly the appropriate sense. Just check out what they’re saying:

Genre baiting seems a good way to woo people into indie film. But is it too often a bait and switch game? Sci-fi geeks favoring big budget movies tend to be disappointed by stuff like “Monsters” and the recent Sundance breakout “Another Earth.

The whole point of queerbaiting, after all, is that it is necessarily a bait and switch game “then do not actually depict, same-sex romance”. Thus, it is fortuitous that I decided to go with “lorebaiting” as the actual description of I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ sin. But, I suppose, you really need to know what I mean by lore to grasp why I’m using that term. Basically, it’s a one syllable “alternative” to world-building.

When it gets down to it, I’m Thinking of Ending Things seems to set up a fantasy or sci-fi storyline. It does this through those clues mentioned above and also constantly cutting to a random janitor. This immediately raises the question of whether or not the the janitor is actually Jake? And, as intimated the book (based on the Wikipedia article) says the answer is yes whereas in the movie it’s not relevant at all. Every single time we think we’re going to come to some sort of answer that makes clear the rules of the world we’re watching, it’s just trite metaphorical bullshit. Every. Single. Time. Hell, it’s not even good trite metaphorical bullshit… if it was, it would’ve ended when the main character’s actress disappeared from the ballet scene.

Actually, good trite metaphorical bullshit doesn’t leave you in a place where you feel confident categorically rejecting a particular interpretation. That’s why the random ballet ending would be better than the random song ending… that cuts to the actual car in the actual car park. The song sort of becomes a metaphorical dream of self-absorbed maniacs. Indeed, one might argue it’s their mutual dream…

So… don’t watch I’m Thinking of Ending Things. It isn’t interested in answers but it is interested in appropriating the style of things that are. What’s worse is that it fails to deliver something that doesn’t make you go, “Well, why didn’t they just do that?” after you read Wikipedia to see why the critics have their heads up their arses yet again and end up reading the novel’s plot summary. But being a bad adaptation really doesn’t do justice to the problem of I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ lorebating.