Magnolia (1999)

Well, Tim, I was in!

Of course, I didn't really have to be dragged. Anderson's "Boogie Nights" was hands down the best film of 1997. I will watch anything the man cares to unleash on the general public. And even knowing that "Magnolia" had a 3 hour and 8 minute run time, I was ready to rock. I was there for the first show, one the first morning, when it finally made it's way to Austin. 1/7/2000.

And rock I did! "Magnolia" is one of the finest, most well drawn, most deliberate and stylized films ever to grace the silver screen. If "Boogie Nights" exposed the idea that any group of people can be a family, than "Magnolia" fronts the idea that "shit happens."

Supposedly, as legend goes, an king in times long passed asked his wise council to come up with a sentence that would be appropriate in any situation. There learned wise men presented this wonderful phrase: "And this too shall pass." This is wisdom indeed, but I like P.T. Anderson's idea better: "This is just something that happens."

People fall in love, people die, people are exploited, it rains frogs, children are born geniuses, people get cancer, people lose their mother and father, people molest their children, people get fired, game shows stay on the air for 30 years, people get married for money, men sleep around, father's exploit their children for profit, men love other men, cops make mistakes, people abuse drugs. This is just something that happens.

Make no mistake, there is some cause and effect at work here. But Anderson divides this thought into a realm that deals with forgiveness and regret. And this theme is unfurled just as effectively as his message about happenstance is delivered.

I will not fawn over Mr. Anderson, though he really deserves it. His ego is so robust that any additional praise might cause his head to explode. And that is something cinema definitely does not need. Sure, his film is bloated and full. But it is bursting at the seems with absolute good stuff. The camera work, the dialogue, the characters, the plotlines, the music (Oh God, the music), the colors, the ideas, the motifs, the actors, the special effects... It all culminates and boils and stirs and becomes this wondrous potpourri of beauty and wisdom and love and harmony. It's a sight to behold.

The film has about 5 plotlines going on concurrently, throughout.. Usually in films like this, one or two of these plotlines will be unsatisfactory or disinteresting, but the film will work because, as we watch, we can soon be returned to a storyline that we enjoy at anytime in the viewing process. It's not necessary to have that hope here. Every single plotline is marvelous. Even those that have been seen before. Even those we see coming. It doesn't matter. Anderson weaves a film like an old Indian woman weaving a majestic tapestry. The beauty in the intricacies of the weaving is only superseded by the beauty of the final whole.

And the actors. I cannot find flaw in any of them. Sure, they have great characters drawn for them, but they make Anderson's world come alive. Tom Cruise gives his best performance since "Risky Business." Like that archetype teen romp, Cruise is all cock and nose in "Magnolia." He looks uneven and great. But it is his performance, which even finds a perfect moment to put him in only his underwear, is of a caliber that can only be called brilliant. Julianne Moore delivers a new twist on an stereotypical character that rockets into the stratosphere of great acting. Her moments in a pharmacy, where she finally peels off layers of years of hardness and breaks down is phenomenal. John C. Reilly is also perfection here. Oh, why don't I just tell you the names of the other actors, they are all consummate and worthy of praise. Even Henry Gibson, locked into the unflattering role of an aging queeny bitch is able to make gold here. William H. Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Melora Walters, Phillip Baker Hall, Melinda Dillon, Alfred Molina, and everyone else here simply do the best work of the year, perhaps of their careers, in the film.

And special mention must be made of Jason Robards and Jeremy Blackman. Robards plays a dying man with eerie perfection. His moaning and stalled speech and forced breathing all culminating, along with his marvelously delivered dialogue, to a fever pitched moment where he offers up a platitude or two about regret that is some of the most crystalline and wondrous discussion ever to grace the silver screen. Blackman, meanwhile, at first forced into a rather typical child's role, is able to elevate his young character to high art with a truly poignant and devastating delivery of the character. And then he has two additional moments which solidify the film. Anderson's film builds to three perfect acts that not only mirror the three acts supposedly inherent in good screenwriting, but also serves as opportunities for his piece to shift themes slightly. Blackman is there in each one. In the mid portion of the film he ends up giving us one of the most heart breaking moments in cinematic history where he, as a child, tells us to give up. It's devastating. Then, in the film's final climax, he delivers a line of beauty and understanding that makes the film a whole. It's the most magical moment in the film. Blackman is worthy of every ounce of praise and platitude that can be heaped upon his tender, young shoulders. He, like the cast that surrounds him, is awesome perfection here.

"Magnolia" is a celebration of the human spirit, warts and all. It's about the good and the bad in all of us. It's about trying to cope with life on Earth and figure it all out. Of course, in trying to figure out humankind, it's best to also understand that some things are simply just unexplainable. There are some things we cannot figure out. Why do these things happens? What do children get hurt? Why do people fall out of love? Why do fathers abandon families? And why does it rain frogs every once in a blue, blue moon? There are no answers for some of these questions.

If life is a magnolia, then the film finds it's greatest joy in watching it bloom. Even if the watcher never fully understands why it unfurls into the sun as it does. You don't have to know why it blooms. All that is important to know is this: "This is just something that happens."

There is great humanity and joy in that sentence.

Notes:

Narrator is Ricky Jay, an apparently well known con man.

Music score by Jon Brion. Songs by Aimee Mann.

Shot in January of 99 on a budget of $30 million.

The film did receive a couple of Golden Globe noms.

Report Card

Script: A+

Acting: A+

Cinematography\Lighting: A+

Special Effects\Make Up: A+

Music: A+

Final Grade: A+