3 ½ stars (out of four)
Many of the characters in Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, and
particularly the two at the center of his latest, The Master, are unhinged and unpredictable. His films tend to
be unpredictable too (I’m thinking specifically of the milkshake monologue in There
Will Be Blood, the frogs in Magnolia, every scene in Punch-Drunk Love), but they are far from unstable. The style of Mr.
Anderson, who wrote and directed this film, his first in five years, is always
focused and assured. The actions of his characters are often bewildering and
bizarre but the steadiness of his camera and the methodical pacing of his
storytelling give us the sense that we are in good hands, that he knows where
he is taking us.
Through the patient, almost voyeuristic lens of the film’s
opening scenes, we meet Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a World War II Navy
veteran just beginning his post-war life. The military has diagnosed him (as
well as the rest of a roomful of vets) with an anxiety disorder but, this being
1950, he receives little treatment aside from a pat on the back and a “Good
luck, son.”
On top of that (or perhaps because of that) Freddie is also
an alcoholic and quite possibly a nymphomaniac. He stumbles about his life,
leering at strangers, taking swigs from a flask that contains a potent homemade
cocktail – a toxic blend of booze and household chemicals – and is fired from
more than one job.
On an impulse one evening, he hops aboard a boat where he
meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the leader of The Cause, a
dubious religious organization, who is celebrating the marriage of his daughter
(Ambyr Childers). The organization (is it a church? a school? a cult?)
practices a pseudo-science referred to as “processing.” The “processing” method
is essentially a psychotherapy session and at first does not seem to be so
different from Sigmund Freud’s interest in therapy as a way to root out past
traumas. The Cause’s ultimate goal, however, is to reconnect an individual with
their past lives, some of which, Dodd claims, date back trillions of years.
(Dodd is none too pleased when a vocal critic of his work reminds him the Earth
is only several billion years old.)
It is easy to see how The Cause has gained followers. Dodd
is a charismatic speaker and, in comparison to Freddie, who he soon befriends
and takes under his wing, Dodd is a seeming picture of poise, authority and
intellect. But does he actually believe in what he preaches or is he, as one
character puts it, just making it up as he goes along? Dodd’s public image is
further complicated by a family life that includes his domineering wife (a
quietly menacing Amy Adams) and his son (Jesse Plemons), a member of The Cause
but also a skeptic.
The relationship between Freddie and Dodd is an elusive one.
Dodd seems genuinely keen on helping Freddie and, for all the questionable
implications of “processing,” Freddie’s early sessions provide real
breakthroughs into his repressed past. From there, things get murkier. Their
relationship all but consumes The Master
and yet, by the film’s end, it is difficult to know what to make of it. Dodd
cares for Freddie with something resembling paternal love and Freddie
reciprocates with an unwavering loyalty toward his mentor (sometimes violently
so). There are also deeper layers to their bond that only occasionally bubble
up and reveal themselves.
The performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour
Hoffman are stunning. Mr. Phoenix disappears into his role to a frightening
degree, raving and shouting and physically abusing himself, while Mr. Hoffman’s
subtler performance offers an interesting foil to Mr. Phoenix’s maximalist
approach. Dodd’s silence and self-control make him even more inscrutable than
Freddie.
Paul Thomas Anderson gives his actors plenty of room,
shooting them in extended wide shots, then closing in for prolonged and
mesmerizingly expressive close-ups. Working with cinematographer Mihai
Malaimare Jr., Mr. Anderson gives his film a lustrous visual style (worth
nothing, the movie was shot on 65mm film, a rarely used format nowadays). He
meticulously places his characters in the center of a shot, leaving vast
amounts of open space in the frame.
In more ways than one, The Master may be seen as a companion piece to Paul Thomas
Anderson’s last movie, 2007’s There Will Be Blood. The legitimacy of religious figures and the power
they hold over people was a peripheral theme in that film and it is the main
focus here. Mr. Anderson raises interesting issues regarding the crossroads of
intellectual and spiritual pursuits and the degrees to which anyone can trust
either.
But The Master is
foremost a dual character study and the most pressing questions lingering in
the air after the final scenes are about Freddie and Dodd’s relationship. There
are a number of deliberately open-ended mysteries, loose ends left
tantalizingly untied. The lack of closure makes The Master Paul Thomas Anderson’s most vexing movie to date but
also begs an interesting question: If its characters are frauds who speak in
empty language, does that make the movie empty of substance as well? What was
all the tension and drama building toward?
I don’t know. And I suspect my own uncertainty is part of
the point Paul Thomas Anderson is driving at, or it is at least an intended
effect of the film. Who’s to say for sure?
- Steve Avigliano, 9/27/12
