Toni Collette, Jesse Plemons, and Jessie Buckley board Charlie Kaufman's Netflix movie

By Randall Colburn | March 26, 2019 | 7:23pm

Aux Features Film

Toni Collette, Jesse Plemons, and Jessie Buckley board Charlie Kaufman's Netflix movie

When last we heard tell of Charlie Kaufman’s Netflix adaptation of Ian Reid’s wonderful, deeply unnerving 2016 novel I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Captain Marvel star Brie Larson was attached to star. Blame scheduling, her rising star, or the siren song of our tech overlords, but that no longer seems to be the case. Instead, Irish singer and actress Jessie Buckley will step into the lead role, while a crack supporting cast will hover ominously just outside of her periphery. They include Friday Night Lights and Fargo star Jesse Plemons, as well as Hereditary’s Toni Collette and Harry Potter alum David Thewlis.

As Netflix noted in a tweet, Kaufman calls the source material “an ingeniously twisted nightmare road trip through the fragile psyches of two young lovers.” That’s a pretty good way to sum up what’s a fairly indescribable book, which begins on a wintry road and veers through twisted strains of memory, a strange family dinner, and a mind-melting detour. Though not necessarily a horror novel, Reid’s story most certainly toys with the uncanny. Kaufman is a perfect fit.