All of us have had one of those days… Those days where
everything in our lives aligns up just perfectly so that we feel that we are
having the worst day of our lives. It’s an amazing phenomenon, since it’s based
on the notion that we can predict what the future has in store for us. On those
days, the one feeling that rears its ugly head the most is that we’re alone. We
can’t possibly conceive that another human being could be having just as
terrible of a day as we are. Magnolia
is a film that proves that we are never alone, especially on a truly miserable
day. This does not make for a completely cynical film though. In fact, the
ending shot has such an urgent sense of optimism, that it challenges everything
that precedes it. Magnolia is an
exercise in ambition, but it never threatens to collapse under that ambition.
The film takes place in Los Angeles, and follows nine people
wading through quite a stressful night. This film is unlike 2005′s mega-hit Crash, where all the stories tightly
interconnected to construct a hugely contrived story that employed cheap
gimmicks to get its characters to interact with each other. Magnolia is not interested in making
sure all of its characters come together in a grand fashion. The connections
are there, but in much subtler ways. It simply wants to tell a story about
chance and coincidence, and if there really is such a thing as either one of
them.
For a film of such epic proportions, it’s only fitting for
its cast to be just as massive. Magnolia
has superb performances across the board, ranging from John C. Reilly’s sweetly
understated police officer to Tom Cruise’s boisterous professional womanizer. Nobody
here outshines anybody else, simply because the performances are uniformly
excellent, which is a crucial component in an ensemble drama.
Divulging the plot details would be both exhausting and
beside the point. What truly makes this film the masterpiece that it is, are
the dazzling sequences that director Paul Thomas Anderson uses to serve the
plot. There is a fantastic opening in which a pleading narrator describes three
urban legends, all dealing with coincidences. The following montage introduces
the characters, and is breathtakingly fast-paced and exquisitely directed. One
section of the film finds all of the characters singing the same song, albeit
separately, and unknowingly connected. Lastly, there is a third-act scene that
is such an abrupt left-turn for this film’s plot (or any film’s plot for that
matter) that it will either make or break your viewing experience. You don’t
have to love the ending, but you do owe it to yourself to give this masterpiece
a shot. Even if you can’t forgive the script’s eventual detour, it’s hard to
deny Paul Thomas Anderson’s impeccable direction.
A lot of people have criticized this film for
leaning too heavily on “style over substance.” The style is certainly here in excess
amounts, but without it the substance would be meaningless. This is a film that
demands to be taken seriously, despite its self-reflexive implausibility.
Coincidence? I think not.
-Nick
