MAGNOLIA (director/writer: Paul Thomas Anderson; cinematographer: Robert Elswit; cast: Jeremy Blackman (Stanley Spector), Tom Cruise (Frank T. J. Mackey), Melinda Dillon (Rose Gator), April Grace (Gwenovier, reporter), Luis Guzman (Luis), Philip Baker Hall (Jimmy Gator), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Phil Parma), Ricky Jay (Burt Ramsey), Orlando Jones (Worm), William H. Macy (Donnie Smith, quiz kid), Alfred Molina (Solomon Solomon), Julianne Moore (Linda Partridge), John C. Reilly (Jim Kurring), Jason Robards (Earl Partridge), Melora Walters (Claudia Wilson Gator), Michael Bowen (Stanley's father), 1999)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This is a wonderfully chaotic work, meriting high praise for what it tried to do and not condemnation for what it failed to do. There's such a thing as something being spoiled because it has too many good things going for it. That is the case with this ensemble dramatic piece, whose most telling fault is that it eventually resembles an overblown soap opera, going on for far too long. Its three hours length and many subplots will attest to that, even though it is artfully woven together, but could in all honesty, have enough material for five other movies within it. Therefore it is not surprising that the ingenuously talented director, the 29-year-old Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights/Hard Eight), had to finally tie-up all the loose ends of the story into a nice knot, which resulted in an ending that won't please too many because it might seem absurd. But I found myself accepting of its biblical ending and was impressed by the overall stupendous effort of this exuberant film, that is pumped with self-confidence and a virtuoso style. A work that mirrors greatness even if it doesn't quite keep that greatness in proper focus.
The film does go on for too long, with the only thing that could save it from never ending is a biblical miracle, but it settles instead for a plague right out of Exodus in the Bible to make its farewell. That improbable ending was set up and apologized for in its prologue by the offscreen narrator, who explained three different bizarre chance happenings as unlikely but possible, giving cause for the improbable ending the film comes up with, and after all, how absurd could that ending be, if the Bible used the same material! In one of those prologue pieces, a London druggist, in 1911, named Greenberryhill, gets killed by three drifters named, Green, Berry, and Hill.
The reward the viewer gets for sitting through the long and highly structured but at times confusing film, that tries to picture life as being a matter of coincidences, is how brilliant the individual skits were and how fine the acting was. The cast, of Anderson regulars Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, and John C. Reilly, are larger than life figures. To see Jason Robards as a dying old crotchety TV mogul, with a tube up his nose, made for some effective dramatics. Even Tom Cruise, as his estranged son, playing an obnoxious hustling infomercials maker for the product he is selling to men, so that they can conquer women, was done with a blend of humor and pathos, making his role less obnoxious than it could have been. In a role that reminded me, of Jean-Pierre Leaud' outlandish performance in "Irma Vep." Here, Cruise goes for the jugular, as a boorish male predator, someone who is just plain unlikable and prone to going off on rants. What Cruise does, is parody himself and other box-office stars with big egos. Cruise is becoming a noticeably more polished actor ever since his Kubrick stint in "Eyes Wide Shut," and deserves much praise for this role.
This is a Los Angeles based film about the casualities of modernism, each one lost in their own shame and failure to be loved. Each life is depicted as being that of a victim, who has been affected by the mass culture of the TV and popular musical worlds, and crippled psychologically by such after-effects. They are all-tied together too neatly and the outcome of their sufferings is too predictable for my taste. But that can't begin to explain how penetrating a human drama this is and how acutely aware the young director is of the people's misery and heartaches he highlights. He is mostly guilty of being excessive, wanting to put too much of a good thing on the plate, in this Robert Altman's Short Cuts-Nashville like production. But Anderson offers more meat in his character's parts than did Altman and more finesse in telling his story, allowing his actors to expand their roles more.
The film involves the lives of these nine characters during one rainy day in Southern California. They are each connected for one of the following reasons: because something happened in their past that stunted their growth, by their family relationships, and by mere coincidence. And, even though all their lives don't intersect, they are all fighting the same battle to have a clean slate, whether they realize it or not. There is a sensitive but unappreciated cop, who wants to be of help to others, James (John C. Reilly), his coke-using junkie date, resentful of her abusive father, (Melora Walters), her kid game-show host, bastard of a father (Philip Baker Hall), who has learned that he has an incurable cancer and wants to make amends for his past sins, and his current whiz kid star, the unhappy genius, Stanley (Jeremy Blackman), who is bullied by his father, and there is the former whiz kid, now a pathetic grown man with problems over his homosexual love life and his failure to be financially successful, Donnie Smith (William H. Macy ). There's also the game show's wealthy producer, who lies in pain as he is dying, requesting only to speak to his son who won't talk to him now, Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), and the gorgeous younger, unfaithful wife he married when he left his cancer striken first-wife, the now hysterical and remorseful Linda (Julianne Moore), and Earl's estranged son, who when he was 14-years-old nursed his abandoned mother suffering from cancer until she died, the TV pitchman, full of denial and hatred about his past, Frank T. J. Mackey (Tom Cruise), and finally, the home care nurse, Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is sexually frustrated, given to read Hustler magazine, but who is dedicated to looking out for Mr. Partridge as best as he can.
The performances by all were superb, but Reilly's and Hoffman's were better than superb, in a film that didn't have a featured player, but allowed each performer to take his or her time telling their story, as Anderson was able to create a somewhat seamless work out of this separate skits, making use of different camera angles, using TV intercutting methods, fast-cut editing, and utilizing a provocative visual style. He also made the story seem fresh and moving in many different directions to catch all the personalities involved in the story. He also made use of a song, through the performance of Aimee Mann, who somewhere more than half-way through the film, sings the theme song of the film, and it is heard first by one character, then another, until all the film's troubled souls are brought together by a single refrain. "It's not ... going to stop," as each one sings, as if signaling the approach of some impending doom.
Whatever fault one might find with the film, that fault is countered by how interesting and refreshing the film felt, and with the director's flair for taking risks. The unbelievable tale puts one into the mood of the magic happening onscreen, and the magic was not necessarily in what was extraordinary and not in the cleverly plotted coincidences, but in the telling tragedies of the lost souls and their injured psyches, casualities that are inevitable in America's modern world of consumerism. The cry for love can be heard on the lips of the two deathlike, philandering fathers, and on all the other lost souls, each searching for a place to fit in and for a way to love someone and be loved in return.
Incidently, the title of the film comes from the name on the street sign.
REVIEWED ON 1/28/2000 GRADE: A-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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