That You're A Nice Guy and Turning Your 'Friend' Into A Sperm Receptacle, among other complex topics. Complementing those two high octane poles is a web of family betrayal and torment as insoluble as it is absorbing. Anderson jumps from story to story, sifting unflinchingly through the personal carnage, but as the tension draws out like a blade, the jarring cuts here and there are more relieving than distracting. And, surprisingly, most impressive in this dysfunctional family circus is Cruise. And if you don't yet find Julianne Moore , Philip Baker Hall , Philip Seymour Hoffman , John C. Reilly , William H. Macy , et all to be incomparable this film is one big wallop of a wake-up call.
Cruise emerges as a revelation.
It is a tale of desperation, and not that civilly quiet kind that Thoreau envisioned, but wrenching, undeniable, barely to be borne desperation. Consequences to such simple transgressions are heavy in Magnolia, and perhaps it is that terrible weight that makes some people recoil from it. Perhaps it's the weight of the brazen filmic conceits and devices, like dissenting critics have postulated. Naysayers can say its self-indulgent, its too long, too much, too whacked. Granting every criticism, all you have left is terrific performances at every turn, stories that brim with great love as well as great loss, and Tom Cruise's package.