Wacky races that kept Jessie and her pals on track
Jessie Buckley was way up on the 43rd floor of an apartment tower in chicago, talking to me about her new film, director charlie kaufman’s i’m Thinking Of ending Things. Her character’s name is unknown... though it could be lucy.
‘she’s somebody who shape- shifts in different environments,’ Buckley told me. ‘i guess she’s searching for something truthful in each moment that she exists.’
Then our phone call was interrupted by the sound of Buckley cracking up. ‘Ok,’ she said, collecting herself. ‘if this makes any sense at all, i will give you an Oscar!’
That’s kind of the point of the movie, which is streaming on Netflix from today.
it doesn’t make sense — but that’s part of the fun. some will find it exasperating.
But if you keep your eye on Buckley, her beguiling performance will help you untangle the strange tale of the woman driving with her boyfriend (played by Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents (Toni collette and David Thewlis).
shooting the picture in upstate New york had its wacky moments. Buckley told me kaufman brought kids’ scooters to the set: ‘We’d have scooter races in between takes.’ Which helped get the circulation going, after standing about in the bitter cold. There are many references in the film to the musical Oklahoma!, particularly the show’s hero curly, who represents ‘the light’ while his nemesis Jud Fry ushers in ‘darkness’.
‘i think there’s darkness in everybody, right?’ Buckley said. ‘even me.’ More laughter down the line.
kaufman’s adaptation of iain Reid’s novel has some moments of richness. Towards the end, Plemons’s character, now aged, muses to an audience about ‘the mysterious equations of love’.
Buckley adores that line. ‘it’s a beautiful and complex feeling, but it’s not a pretty thing tied up in a bow.’
The actress’s career has developed rapidly in the past few years, from stage plays opposite Judi Dench to parts in films such as the Oscar-winning Judy (alongside Renee Zellweger) and the Miss World comedy Misbehaviour. There have been leading roles, too, in Wild Rose and Beast.
Before the pandemic struck, she had been filming the TV series Fargo with ewan McGregor and Ben Whishaw.
she has been back in chicago for nearly a month now, and said her scenes should be completed by this weekend.
Her character in the quirky crime drama is called Oraetta Mayflower. ‘she’s a nurse,’ she said, ‘and beyond that i’d probably have to kill you... in the best Fargo way.’
instead, she revealed that she will soon be heading to Greece to star with Olivia colman in The lost Daughter, based on elena Ferrante’s novel and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.