Magnolia

GREEN‘S TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR OF FROGS REVIEW:

This has got to be one of the most eclectic and bizarre films I have seen in a long time. I had never seen it prior to a few days ago, in order to write this review. My friend at work also suggested this movie for us to review.

The movie has a run time of just over three hours and about an hour into it, I’m thinking, "What the heck kind of movie is this? What did my friend get me into?"

What you have with Magnolia is a bunch of scenes that all take place in the span of a single, rainy day. The characters are every day people: a police officer, a television game show host, a young brainy kid as a game-show contestant, a former child game-show contestant winner thirty years later living off of his game show fame, a bed ridden dying man, his much younger trophy wife, a visiting male nurse, a cocaine addict and a sexual self help guru. At first these scenes don’t seem to be related, but as the film goes on the connections become more and more evident. What makes these characters so compelling is that every one of them is brilliantly flawed.

The ensemble cast, for the most part, is excellent and includes Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. O’Reilly, William H. Macy, Jason Robards, and Melora Walters. In my opinion, the weak link in the cast is Julianne Moore, of whom I’ve never been a fan.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson does a skillful job weaving these stories together. However the film teeters on having too many story lines with too many characters, so many that I almost gave up on the movie. My other complaint largely has to do with the run-time of three hours and eight minutes. Easily this movie could have accomplished the same thing in less time. The movie is about 30-45 minutes too long.


Oh yeah, one more thing. What gives with the freaking frogs?

My friend suggested that they needed some catastrophic thing to happen at the end of the movie to tie in to the narrative piece at the beginning and end of the movie. He suggests the raining of frogs was foreshadowed earlier by someone in the game show audience holding up a sign with the Bible reference of Exodus 8:2, which speaks of the plague of frogs God brought upon the Egyptians for Pharaoh’s continued refusal to free the Israelites from the bonds of slavery. However the Biblical plague entailed live frogs coming up out of the Nile River and infesting everything, not dead frogs falling from the sky like extremely large chunks of hail. Nice try but I don’t buy into that explanation.

Unfortunately I had to return the library copy of the DVD, so I didn’t get to watch any of the bonus features on the 2^nd disc.

Loathe as I am to suggest it, this is a film that screams, (gasp) “potentially better with a second viewing!”

***½ out of *****

SCRIBE'S BEST MULI-STORY ARC EVER REVIEW:

It is rare that a film can be both an ensemble piece and move with balletic grace for a running time of nearly three hours, yet “Magnolia” pulls it off.

This was Paul Thomas Anderson’s eagerly awaited follow-up to “Boogie Nights” and it was met with a mixed response. People expecting another descent into glorious sleaze as with the previous film were left cold by the more philosophical and grown-up Magnolia. But those who appreciated brilliant writing and acting were stunned by this film’s grace and deep emotional core.

This is a film for anyone who’s lost a parent or felt disconnected from the things other people seem to take for granted. Featuring a veritable who’s who of acting, the film showcases the various lives of a cop, a motivational speaker for men, a hospice nurse and a trophy wife who has suddenly discovered that she loves her dying husband.

This isn’t an action film; Anderson keeps the narrative moving with brilliant editing. Long before “Traffic” and “Crash” gave us the multi-story arc, Magnolia lets us see inside these peoples’ minds and hearts as they are bared for us in ways that are both revealing and uncomfortable.

Many criticized the film’s bizarre conclusion because they didn’t understand it. Analytical types were left completely baffled by it. Perhaps because it hints at if not divine intervention then certainly divine revelation, some felt the realism of the earlier portion of the film was sacrificed. They are wrong.

This is one of the great underrated masterpieces.

***** out of *****