Writer Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation., Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) makes an ambitious directorial debut with this high-concept comedy drama. It starts as a breezy tale of midlife, middle-class dysfunction about neurotic New York theatre director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), trapped in a failing marriage. After work takes his artist-wife Adele (Catherine Keener) away, Caden seeks artistic validation with an ambitious theatrical project to re-create his life inside a vast warehouse. The humour ranges from broad physical comedy (Caden's freak shaving accident) to the absurd - his would-be lover Hazel (Samantha Morton) lives in a house that is, literally, on fire. But as years pass and the evolving cast in the warehouse makes events ever harder to follow, Kaufman, like his protagonist, overreaches himself. Hoffman holds this sometimes baffling piece together with a multilayered performance as a man thwarted by a chronic inability to commit to the women in his life, and there's excellent support from Morton, Emily Watson, Michelle Williams and Dianne Wiest. Despite its flaws, this is light years ahead of the average Hollywood comedy.

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.