Anderson is trying to prove to us that none of these stories is random or arbitrary. We see the cause and effect cycle of several people's lives and how damaged they truly become. Julianne Moore plays Jason Robards' trophy wife, who wants to have her husband's will changed because she feels guilty that she will soon inherit his fortune when he dies. Her struggle with the guilt makes her so emotional and suicidal she can barely carry on a conversation, and her performance is unnerving. Anderson studies the limits of unconditional forgiveness and questions its merits over and over again.
Music plays a huge role in Magnolia.
Anderson pulls Aimee Mann out of major label obscurity and puts her brittle, heavily acoustic music to work. Her songs saturate the film and even feel like a collective character, particularly in the montage sequence Anderson weaves together wherein the main characters mouth the words that seem specifically written for them. It's eerie and effective. The technique is hackneyed and cliched in the music video world but it is a rarity in film, and Anderson pulls it off amazingly well. The characters briefly escape their respective realities even if it's only for the brief length of the song itself.