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Disconjuncted is the one word (if it is a word) that comes to mind after viewing Magnolia. Items similar to it that I can think of are soap operas and the movie Pulp Fiction. I liked Pulp Fiction, I do not like soap operas. The reason that I enjoyed Pulp Fiction is because Tarantino followed a story line from beginning to end and then switched to a different one, plus you were able to see scenes from a different perspective in the various story lines. Soap operas switch back and forth between the many story lines in order to build suspense and keep the audience watching, and unless you watch the show on a regular basis you don't know what's going on. Well that's just what it was like watching Magnolia, except that the film has a lot better acting than the soap operas. Now on with what the movie is about. We start with Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible) who is a sleaze ball that teaches guys how to score with any woman. As we learn later in the film, his rich father Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) abandoned Frank and his sick mother. Frank's mom then dies of breast cancer when Frank is still young, leaving Frank very bitter towards his bastard father, who as it turns out is dying. Throw in the new wife (Julianne Moore from The End of The Affair) who is being driven crazy with guilt over marrying the father for the money. You see she used to sleep around, but then she fell in love with the old timer and now doesn't want the money she is set to inherit. Then we have a few over stories going on. You have William H. Macy (A Civil Action) playing a former whiz kid doing stupid things to try and get this one guy to love him. Then there is the story of Rose Gator (Melinda Dillon) who is a cocaine addict that falls in love with a cop while dealing with issues of her dying father, Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall) who is the host of a local TV quiz show that Macy's character was on years back. The issues there are not related to her father dying. Yet another story line is the relationship between a new whiz kid on that quiz show and his abusive father. But wait, there's more! Finally there is the relationship between Mr. Earl Partridge and his nurse played by Philip Seymour Hoffman (thankfully it is not a sexual relationship). Hoffman puts in a very convincing performance as the hospice nurse (you would better recognize him from Scent of a Woman and The Talented Mr. Ripley). All of these different story lines are mended together into one movie, and frankly I don't think it worked to well. I was intrigued for the first hour as to how the director Paul Thomas Anderson would eventually bring the stories together. Then I just became annoyed, and finally perplexed as frogs started to rain down in the San Fernando Valley, which would be impossible in that quantity (a plane could drop a few frogs, but they would pretty much all hit the ground at the same time). Now for the pluses: Cruise does put in a great performance (as do many of the other actors and actresses), and all of the story lines were intriguing. In the end though, these two pluses did not outweigh the negatives, and so Magnolia receives four couches out of the possible ten. Basically I would have liked to see the various stories have a few connecting scenes between them. Well that's it for this review. Choi baby. Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:45:50 AM |
