Magnolia

   I would like to start by saying that this review is in tribute to Philip Seymour-Hoffman. Although today he passed, his master-class body of work will never be forgotten. In Magnolia he gave his most memorable performance, but I will get to more of that later.

  In 1999, Paul Tomas Anderson directed Magnolia, a symbol-filled, character development. It tells the story of eight, seemingly unrelated, people, who have more in common, through: family, alcohol, God, and turmoil; than any of them had every expected. 

  The theme that is most present in this film is divine intervention. There is an ever present benevolent force looming throughout the entire film that, in many instances, brings the characters together. Julianne Moore is the first person to start unraveling this chain of connections to us. She plays Linda Partridge, a woman with a wandering eye and a bad alcoholic habit, who is married to a dying man, Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), who happens to be the CEO of his own television network. These two provide the base for, what ends up being, a twisted and contorted family tree.

  The two branches erected directly from Earl and Linda are: Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise), a fanatic man's man, who blindly guides men  through their sexual journeys, and Phil Pharma (Philip Seymour-Hoffman), a passive, kindhearted male nurse.

  Hoffman's performance as Phil reduced me to tears. He exhibits such restraint, and reckless caring for a man who he had previously never known. Phil's role as a nurse took a sharp turn, when Earl, his patient, gives him a dying request to find his son, Frank T.J. Mackey. This simple request turns into a game of phone tag, searching relentlessly for this mystery man. This performance made a movie that is, somewhat, all over the place into something, so real, that it touches a chord in all of our hearts.

 Cruise will never be able to top what he showed in Magnolia. He gives a swinging-dick performance.  It gives the movie exactly what it needed: and adrenaline shot. Frank became a star, in his own right, through porn advertised lectures. In these lectures, Frank is manic and wild. He thrusts the air, simulates fellatio, shouts "TAME THE CUNT" at the top of his lungs, and does anything in his repertoire, to inflate the audiences lacking ego. Frank does not see his foul treatment of women as an issue, but instead see's it as a natural reaction to having a absentee father: Earl. Cruise rounds out the roster of men, and makes the issues of the three men taunt and harsh. 

  More people join the pool of characters as the plot develops. The culmination of it all comes from the sky. The vice grip of impending death, the festering tumor of daddy issues, the manhunt for a man's dying wish, and the sexual and alcoholic frustration, all take a back seat for a torrential downpour of frogs. These frogs unite everyone in one explosive evening.

  Paul Thomas Anderson weaves the film together in masterful form. Its originality like this that makes me excited to go to the movies. Never have I experienced another movie that has captured the emotions of so many vastly different human lives before. Magnolia is a true work of art, and will go down in the books as a classic.

4 out of 4 stars