Rueful, daring and bleakly funny, Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut
poses far greater challenges than how to pronounce the title (say it
like Schenectady). Like, for instance, trying to keep track of the
passage of time in this story of a frustrated playwright (played by an
especially shambling Philip Seymour Hoffman) who uses a massive grant
to literally turn his life into a theatrical production. Or, for that
matter, keeping a handle on who’s playing who as characters in the
playwright’s life are integrated into his meisterwerk, and vice versa.