Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: P.T. Anderson
Written by: P.T. Anderson
Starring: Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Melora Walters, Jeremy Blackman, Michael Bowen, William H. Macy, Philip Baker Hall
Produced by: Joanne Sellar

The Nutshell

The lives of almost a dozen people are altered over a 24 hour period as they cope with various problems in this masterpiece by P.T. Anderson.

The Review

    Fate is a funny thing. Each of us at some time in our life has heard a tale that is unbelievable; the man who has been struck by lightning twelve times in ten years; the man who discovers in mid-air that his parachute will not open, yet does not break a single bone upon landing. We offer disbelief at these tall tales, yet often summarize our feelings with a simple "It must have been fate." Writer/Director P.T. Anderson makes a strong case for fate with Magnolia, a cinematic masterpiece that uses several indirectly related stories to teach us that most of life is coping with the stuff fate throws at us.

    Robert Altman is renowned for his ability to string together an amazing number of mini-stories, most famously in Short Cuts. However, he will likely be as stunned by Magnolia as the rest of us; the film does not jump from story to story, but overlaps them. Scenes end, yet their dialogue continues on, allowing us to follow two or more stories simultaneously, listening to one and watching the others. This gives the film a wonderful momentum, propelling each character along his/her path while the audience never gets lost. The characters' lives hit ups and downs at roughly the same times, and these bumps are separated by, of all things, weather reports (92% chance of rain, etc.). These reports, along with a few musical interludes provided by Aimee Mann's emotional songs not only help the audience focus, but in some cases suggest that the characters' lives are all joined by something larger than chance. This suggestion of a divine hand is hilariously brought to our attention late in the film in its bravest, riskiest scene.

    This is one of the year's strongest ensemble casts, if not the strongest. Anderson uses many of the same actors he used in his two previous films, Boogie Nights and Hard Eight. John C. Reilly gets one of his less dopey roles in recent memory as a hard-working, little-respected policeman. Julianne Moore, after having fun in An Ideal Husband, is emotionally strung out as the trophy wife of Earl, a dying television producer (Jason Robards, whose performance demands our rapt attention every time he appears). Philip Baker Hall is a game show host struggling with medical bad news, while Philip Seymour Hoffman gets his most ordinary character yet as Earl's home nurse. Also noteworthy are Jeremy Blackman as a child genius, William H. Macy as a former child genius whose life is now in a shambles and Melora Walters as a drugged out young woman. The most notable performance of the bunch is that of Tom Cruise as a sexual prowess guru who hosts workshops to teach men how to dominate women. Cruise's performance is almost over the top, but in a moment of painful emotional release, his character changes right before our eyes; this is the stuff for which Oscars are made.

    The real star of Magnolia is P.T. Anderson. As both writer and director, this should be his ticket to directorial stardom. Allegedly saying, after watching the final cut of film, "It's long, it's indulgent, let's leave it", Anderson has created a film that could change Hollywood. In Magnolia, his cinematic wonder, one can see similarities to Francis Ford Coppola and The Godfather, and Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro's shocking Raging Bull. These are the kinds of films that stand the test of time; these are true classics, because the filmmakers dared to throw something new into the cinematic mix. One could easily state that Magnolia could be shorter, and it could. You could completely remove William H. Macy's story and leave the rest of the film intact. The point here is Andersons's vision. The multiple stories build on each other and offer insight. Macy's former child genius offers a glimpse of the future for Blackman's current star. Both Hall and Robards are dying, and though on the surface their lives are only connected by the fact that Robards is the executive producer of Hall's show, they work off of each other as they each struggle to come to terms with their shortened futures. Both Walters and Moore work through drug problems, though of different natures. There are moments of genius in Magnolia's screenplay as well; one scene in particular, a conversation between Macy's burned out former prodigy and an effeminate barfly, is poetic and magical. This is the kind of writing that Shakespeare would appreciate were he alive today.

    The message of Magnolia is that life is made up entirely of chance, and that while we may make decisions about our careers, families etc., when Fate rears its ugly head, all we can do is react. Magnolia is a powerful tale of coping with life's unopening parachutes, whether illness, inability to love, or an unwanted family past, and when combined with such a well-cast group of actors and a magical directing style, it is 1999's best film, hands down. In twenty years, when film school teachers talk about the 90's, this could well be the film they talk about the most. A true classic.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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