Film (2012)
Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Music by Jonny Greenwood
Cinematography by Mihai Malaimare, Jr.
Editing by Leslie Jones, Peter McNulty
With Joaquin Phoenix (Freddie Quell), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Lancaster Dodd), Amy Adams (Peggy Dodd)
Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) is a down and out veteran of World War II, clearly a victim of post traumatic stress disorder. Somehow he comes into contact with Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who takes him into his fold, which turns out to be a new-fangled religion – and, though not identified as such, clearly in the mold of Scientology. We watch as Quell finds his way in, as Dodd expands his influence outwards.
This is a beautifully done film in so many ways and one could lavish praise on its many estimable components.
I saw the famed 70mm version at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, the only Boston area theatre playing that version.
The cinematography is gorgeous. Its vividness and crispness are quite something, and practically all of the shots are beautifully envisioned and constructed. The video editing is extremely good, yielding rhythmic and stirring flows of these striking images.
Perhaps most astounding in the technical production is the score and sound editing. Jonny Greenwood, the composer, is amazingly innovative, and provides a continuously interesting and offbeat accompaniment to the visual display.
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s acting is, as usual, superb. It has a refinement and subtlety that provides a full array of charismatic seductions, yet, as is necessary to this outwardly confident character, shows him teetering on the edge of instability. Hoffman amazingly combines hypnotic appeal and ironic self-deception in a smoothly integrated performance.
Joaquin Phoenix as Freddie Quell is convincingly warped. His contorted body and deranged eyes convey a progressive lunacy that is continuously unsettling and riveting. One easily believes him as fodder for the comforting, visionary and megalomaniac Dodd.
Phoenix has, for many years, done madness and near-madness extremely well. His chilling performance as the Roman ruler, Commodus, in the film, Gladiator (2000) involves fewer overt signs of derangement, but he very effectively conveys that character’s twisted interior nonetheless.
Yet, with all of these wonderful components, there is a crucial narrative dimension missing from The Master.
Anderson wants to tell an epic tale and creates all the machinery to it, but the tale simply is not there. The story of Quell and Dodd is just not extensive enough to merit the scope of this film. We do not learn much about the history of either man, nor do we get a nuanced sense of their relationship. They hover around one another, but we do not get enough sense of how their characters engage to fill the epic scale the film delineates. The actors do what they can to fill in the spaces, but the narrative leaves too much unsaid.
In short, the writing is suggestive, but not evolved. It is as though there were a large, beautifully designed and well-lit gallery, but not enough paintings to put there.
The film looks and sounds like something on the scale of David Lean’s epic film Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – sweeping, majestic and grand – but strangely missing a similarly evocative story. It has characters that plead for richer tales, but they never get told. In short, this is Lawrence of Arabia without Lawrence, a film with many masterful contributory elements – cinematography, editing, score, acting – hovering around a narrative hole which yearns to be filled.
– BADMan
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