MAGNOLIA A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
MAGNOLIA, by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (BOOGIE NIGHTS), is a large and uneven collage of relatively unrelated stories with themes of love and death, truth and lies, and guilt and redemption. The best of the segments are absolutely mesmerizing, but the worst of them are seat-numbingly tedious.
The forecast for the San Fernando Valley on the day that the picture takes place is "party cloudy with an 82% chance of rain." But like most motion pictures, the prop department never stocks umbrellas, a fact which never ceases to amaze me.
Although the movie has a cast of thousands, the stories are really individual ones. To underscore this, the film's killer score starts with a long and loud rendition of "One Is The Loneliest Number."
In a fascinating performance likely to get an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, Tom Cruise is Frank T.J. Mackey, a motivational speaker for sex-crazed men who aren't getting enough. The author of the "Seduce and Destroy System," he preaches a take-no-prisoners approach to sex. A long-haired Cruise plays a man so stoked up that he would appear to use cocaine rather than sugar on his breakfast cereal. When he demands coffee in one scene, the reaction is that, if ever a man didn't need caffeine, it is Frank.
Anderson uses the dramatic theme music ("Also Sprach Zarathustra") from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY for Frank's introduction. Bathed in light like a rock star, Frank enters the room full of would-be world-class seducers and lectures them on how to succeed with every woman they meet. Frank thinks with his private parts -- part of his anatomy that he teaches must be "respected."
Generally Frank doesn't think much of woman as people, but he does see some value in them. "As we learn in Chapter 23," he instructs his adoring male audience, "having a few chick friends lying around is handy for setting up a jealousy trap." Later, when confronted with the reality of his parents, he comes completely unglued. ("The most useless thing in the world is what is behind me -- Chapter 3," he tells a probing reporter who gets under his skin.)
Almost as good as Cruise is John C. Reilly as Officer Jim Kurring. The tender, shy cop hasn't had a date since he got his divorce three years ago. He looks for love with an unlikely date, a cokehead (Melora Walters) whom he meets when she disturbs the neighbors with her noise.
Philip Baker Hall plays Jimmy Gator, the host of television's longest running quiz show. Jeremy Blackman plays Stanley Spector, the show's current boy genius, and Michael Bowen plays the boy's obnoxious father. (In a separate story William H. Macy plays a former boy genius from the show.) Once you learn that Jimmy is rapidly dying of cancer and that Stanley needs to go to the bathroom but they won't let him, you can guess some of what will happen on the show that day.
In the story's most uninteresting segments, Jason Robards plays Earl Partridge, a man literally on his deathbed. Robards, an actor whose talents I find highly limited, gets way too much screen time for my taste. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Earl's nurse, and Julianne Moore plays his trophy wife.
Although the film starts with great momentum, Anderson loses it all by dragging it out just past three hours. The last hour, especially, is a real snoozer. Never even attempting to bring the stories together into a satisfying whole, Anderson instead ends the movies with a ridiculous conclusion introduced completely out of left field.
MAGNOLIA runs way too long at 3:02. It is rated R for strong language, drug use, sexuality and some violence and would be acceptable for older and mature teenagers.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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