In Magnolia,
an Altmanesqe ensemble piece, director Paul Thomas Anderson returns to his
favorite location for wacked out needy people: the San Fernando Valley.
Though he proves that over-ambition and arrogance do not always make the
perfect movie, there is a magnetic pull towards these broken characters.
The film may be too long and somewhat pretentious, but in the end one
willingly gravitates to the pain. There are some truly moving moments of
expert acting that offer glimpses inside damaged people who are all
inter-connected in some way, though however contrived at times.
At the apex
of this film we find two old men dying of cancer who have cast a circle of
destruction around them. Earl Partridge (played excruciatingly well by
Jason Robards) owns a TV station and is on his deathbed. His young wife,
Linda, played with despair by Julianne Moore, realizes that even though
she was a money-grubber when they married, she really does love him now as
the end nears. Earl wishes to see his son Frank Mackie (Tom Cruise) before
he dies, to make amends for abandoning him. Frank, a TV mysogynist/self
help guru, obviously harbors a long standing aggression that comes out
during his "classes". The other old codger, Jimmy Gator (Philip
Baker Hall) is the alcoholic host of a game show for whiz kids on the same
station owned by Partridge. His daughter Claudia (Melora Walters) hates
him for abusing her and has become a coke head to deal with all of the
mess. So we have two TV people, one who has abandoned his son, another who
has abused his daughter. Read: TV is bad.
Anderson's
gift is that he gives complexity to his characters. Two of them, Frank
Mackie (Cruise) and Donnie Smith (William H. Macy), are especially
emotionally stunted. One was abandoned when he was 15 and now gives
seminars with topics like "Seduce and Destroy" and the other is
an emotional halfwit whose fame as a game show whiz kid and money hungry
parents have left him paralyzed and unable to deal with life as a
fortysomething. "I used to be smart, now I'm just stupid" he
laconically informs us. He is as passive as Cruise's character is
aggressive, thus striking a balance to the emotional extremes in this
film. Claudia is also stuck, but she has not been destroyed by her father.
She freely lavishes her rage and pain until she realizes it will consume
her. One fault with her otherwise poetic performance is that Anderson
takes so long to get to the core of her pain. Anyone watching her
confrontation with her father at the beginning of the film would know why
she hates him so much. The result is that Jimmy's story drags on, and we
do not delve further into her character.
Claudia is
also half of the heart of the movie (as Moore was in the overrated Boogie Nights).
Her other half is Officer Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly), who gives an
outstanding performance. He's basically a good guy who wants to do a good
job and see the good in people. He accepts his lot in life and tries to
brighten it up a bit. Basically, he's one of the few characters in the
film actually acting like an adult and looks beyond pitying himself to
extend a hand to others. Of course, he's a awkward with his girl and is
not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but then who really knows how to do
everything perfectly 24 hours a day anyway? His tenderness gives hope in
an otherwise thoroughly depressing film.
As all of the
characters do a big depressing sing-a-long midway through the movie and
belt out "it's not going to stop", they have no idea how right
they are. Like a trip to the grocery store that ends up taking 17 hours,
their misery just takes so long and any hope of arriving at a great final
moment, of putting all of this together into something formidable, is
lost. Anderson throws everything our way and then just leaves it there. On
top of that, there's the music. While Aimee Mann's music is beautiful and
spiritually guides the film, at times you want to scream as blaring music
takes over the entire production. You have to strain to hear the
characters and it's incredibly annoying. Her music is compelling and to
use it in this way was a disservice to the film and to her.
One assumes
at the end that Anderson wants to paint a vivid picture of misery and warn
the public that one can never escape all of the bad things one does.
Somehow or another there will be a reckoning. Although Anderson deems this
truism to be of biblical proportions, sadly it does not makes up for all
of the precious time wasted waiting for the characters to connect. The
performances in this movie are what will stick with you. Anderson has a
talent for developing complex, fascinating characters. He must figure out
what to do with all of them. Magnolia, for all its moments of
brilliance, lets its house of cards crash down.
From Plume
Noire
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