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Review by Jack Foley |
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DVD FEATURES: Colour Bars. Tom Cruise / Frank Mackie seminar. Teaser Trailer,
Domestic Trailer. 9 TV Spots. Aimee Mann 'Save Me' Music Video. Frank Mackie
'Search & Destroy' Infomercial. 75-minute 'Magnolia Diary' Feature.
``RESPECT the cock; tame the cunt'' are hardly words you would expect
to hear coming from the mouth of Tom Cruise - but then Magnolia, the new film
from Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson, is never about subtlety
or the familiar.
Rather, it is an evocative, frequently controversial, yet profoundly moving
piece of cinema boasting a cracking cast at the top of their form. That Cruise
beat the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Robards, William H Macy and
Philip Baker Hall (all established character actors) to the Best Supporting
Actor nomination at this year's Oscars, says much about how far the star has
come as an actor, as it does about his appetite for risk-taking.
Cruise is nothing short of sensational as the expert on female seduction whose
anti-feminist exterior (his book is called `Seduce and Destroy') belies an
inner turmoil borne out of a hard childhood - the revelation of which makes
for riveting viewing.
Combining that trademark Cruise arrogance with a bitter vulnerability which
makes him far less likeable than usual, Cruise positively fizzles whenever
on screen and his scenes with his dying father will probably rank among the
most powerful of the year.
But he is only a small part of the film's rich tapestry - which features
the lives of several men and women during a 24-hour period in Los Angeles.
Equally impressive is Jason Robards' cancer-ridden old man, whose dying request
to nurse Seymour Hoffman (fabulous as ever) is to be reunited with his estranged
son; or Baker Hall's ageing quiz show presenter, whose terminal discovery
prompts some agonising soul searching and revelations of a dark past.
The
typically towering Julianne Moore, as Robard's adulterous wife - forced to
confront the fact that she now loves her husband - is also good value; as
is Macy's former child genius, turned adult failure, who is desperate to reveal
his homosexual love for a beefcake barman.
With so much going on, it is little wonder that Anderson's movie runs at over
three hours, but stick with it and the rewards are massive.
Like a beautiful, blossoming flower, Magnolia grows slowly into the masterpiece
it undeniably becomes; building to a completely surreal finale which is as
uplifting as it is heart-breaking.
And at the centre of it all is John C Reilly's morally decent policeman, Officer
Jim Kurring, whose relationship with Melora Walters' tragic drug addict is
the movie's crowning glory.
With so much misery and despair surrounding them, there seems little chance
of the couple making it; but it is this will they/won't they scenario which
drives the proceedings, giving the audience people they can really root for.
If they can't make it, then what hope is there for the rest of us?
As shocking as it is complex, Magnolia is, quite simply, astonishing film-making
and yet another must-see in a year already crammed with them.
