4 stars out of 5
In less capable hands, this could’ve been The All-New Odd Couple. “He’s Lancaster Dodd, charismatic buttoned-down charlatan! He’s Freddie Quell, drunken aimless rageaholic! It’s id vs. ego in a hilarious battle to the finish! Can these two take a cross-country trip without driving each other crazy?!?”
Luckily, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has very capable hands. He hasn’t made a bad movie yet. And while The Master may not reach the heights of There Will Be Blood in terms of beginning-to-end impact, there’s ultimately something pretty special here.
The two lead performances, by Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, definitely take center stage. Phoenix is practically feral. He spits, he slurs, he spins, punches, pounds, kicks, and screams. I actually couldn’t understand what he was saying some of the time. Hoffman, on the other hand, is smiling, shaking hands, mugging, but with rage and sadness bubbling under the surface. His is the more subtle performance and I think come Oscar time, Hoffman will have a leg up. Phoenix, while great, is almost trying a little too hard.
Amy Adams can’t quite compete on the same playing field, but she does nail a few key scenes. Laura Dern wasn’t really needed for a pretty small part, but she is solid as always. The uptight guy from Rubicon gets a memorable sequence. And good to see Snafu from HBO’s The Pacific getting work.
The movie does look great. I went to see it in 70mm and, don’t tell anybody, but I don’t think that was totally necessary for the subject matter. Lots of indoor sets; plenty of talking. But a handful of scenes here and there are visually breathtaking.
Maybe 90 minutes in, I was thinking: tremendous performances, looks really good, technically excellent, but… something was missing. And I feared that it was The Reason To Tell the Story. But, over the final hour, this movie quietly reached another level. That hard-to-define emotional tug slowly seeped in. Similarities to Scientology are being mentioned a lot but that’s not really the focus here. We have one man running from love and responsibility. He hides behind drink, rage, and possibly madness, to sabotage his own happiness. And we have another man who’s also constructed a facade and also craves escape. They see a bit of themselves in each other, and they see a way out. But seeing it and reaching it are two very different things.
Yes! Yes! You are correctamundo! Id vs. the ego! If you figure out what it all means, let me know. I had no clue. Meanwise, I’ll be anxiously expecting the next Captain American.
I should mention that Amy Adams also has a very capable hand.