Magnolia

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1999
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Paul Thomas Anderson
Genre:	Betrayal, love, misogyny
Starring:	Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Tom Cruise
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175880/
Tagline:	Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.
Favourite line:	"I will drop-kick those fuckin' dogs if they come near me."

Complex, intense, dark and twisted.
Where do I even begin with this? There's so much happening, yet nothing at all going on for huge sections.
The characters are all incredibly damaged, riven either by hatred, disease, betrayal or addiction, and this seems to be the common theme. Parental betrayal of their offspring seems to be the message that over-rides all, and it is a bleak vision indeed.
The conceit used to string it all together is unuusal - a quiz show - that people either work on, appear on, have children appearing on, or simply watch. All the characters amassed have some connection to the show, and this is the portal through which we view their lives.
Performances throughout are outstanding, the most notable being Tom's Bruise, here cast dead against type as a misogynistic speaker, founder of a group called Seduce Destroy, the function of which is to teach men that women are evil, manipulative liars. He really is vile, and plays the role well(!).
Too complex to go into any particular plot point, this is a character piece of extraordinary breadth, with some genuinely odd moments - it starts raining frogs at one point - and will surely stand up to multipled viewings.
Long, clocking in at over three hours, lock the door, turn off the phone and, if you figure it out, please email me to explain what the hell that was all about!!