magnolia left me relling from the theatre , staggering from the relentless assault of an adventurous director reveling in his craft .
at nearly three and a half hours , magnolia will strike some as a brute of a film .
it not only demands your attention , but challenges you to grasp the significance of seemingly unrelated storylines and hidden intentions .
it is delirious , depressing , heady , pretentious , surreal filmmaking .
it 's also a movie that will polarize its viewers .
director paul thomas anderson takes a talented cast , wraps them in a net of interrelated stories and sets them spinning in a symphony of despair whose song does n't let up until an oddly exhilerating , biblically influenced pseudo - climax .
the character 's make up a modern day gomorrah in the soulless way in which they live their lives .
there is frank mackey ( tom cruise ) , a slithery snake charmer of men whose " search and destroy " seminars teach how to mentally rape a woman to get into her pants .
there is earl partridge ( jason robards ) , a dying media tycoon yearning to make amends for a lfe of callousness by finding his estranged son .
there is game show host jimmy gator ( phillip baker hall ) , a self absorbed tv icon who is hiding more than a few secrets from his public .
and there is police officer jim kurring (
john c . reilly ) , who cloaks himself in the codification of organized religion and the legal system , perhaps masking a man who needs rules to fuel his decision making process .
given equal weight are stories involving a coke - addled emotional cripple ( melora walters ) , a former tv quiz show champion ( william h . macy ) .
a materialistic , adulterous wife ( julianne moore ) , a child ( jeremy blackman ) victimized by a mentally abusive parent , and a caring , empathetic nurse ( philip seymour hoffman ) .
hovering over all these characters is a cloud of death , lies and despair .
it is not a pleasant movie .
there is not one bad note in the acting .
it is affecting and layered and wonderful .
there is a moment where tom cruise wordlessly implodes that rivals work he has done in whole films .
then he tops himself with a mesmerizing deathbed scene .
walters plays her character with red - eyed rawness and a fierce self - destructiveness that is anxiety inducing .
robards convincingly portrays a fading whisper of a man , who still hears a lion 's roar when he speaks .
director anderson has apparently given the actors lattitude to emote .
the problem is that he stays on them too long .
julianne moore 's character , linda , quickly escalates to a frenzied pitch of guilt , tears , screaming and remorse and never backs off from it .
after a few hours , it turns from interesting to chinese water torture .
quite a few scenes , such as the game show , go on just a bit too long and will be off - putting for those used to a pat 90 minute film where the main theme is reiterated several times just in case you missed it the first go around .
and just what is the theme ?
alienation ?
hopelessness ?
anderson challenges you to draw your own conclusions and he does n't make it easy .
the film starts by showing three , strange and seemingly unrelated events .
it 's a harbinger of the synchronicity to come .
at times , different stories reach reach key moments at the same time .
other times , stories seem to veer off into uncharted territory , regardless of what else is happening .
anderson is audacious enough to even have a group sing in the middle of the film !
what 's surprising is that it mostly works .
if you have doubts about anderson 's intentions , i 'll ask you to pay attention to the final frame .
despite all the sturm und drang , magnolia ultimately speaks to man 's capacity for hope and attempts at redemption .
despite magnolia 's needlessly long running time and its propensity for uneven editing as anderson plays the auteur , showing off fro the masses , i have to admire his guts .
this is truly adventurous filmmaking
that spits in the face of conventional storytelling .
my rating : a bulleye .
( stars ) a side note : helping anchor the film is a perfectly matched soundtrack featuring aimee mann .
her lyrics often add depth to a scene thematically while the actual music is both morose and beautiful .
when she sings " save me " at the end , it enhances the yearning felt by the characters , just as " wise up " mirrors the anguish felt by all as they contemplate their lives .
affecting and layered and wonderful what 's surprising is that it mostly works truly adventurous filmmaking there is not one bad note in the acting i have to admire his guts