Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
It is not often that a film can keep my absolute attention
for a runtime of over two hours. The Master is a film that constantly keeps
your intrigue and very much requires your concentration. It’s not a
particularly confusing film (although it’s not exactly straightforward either)
but the characters and the relationships between them are so incredibly complex
and deep that it would be an impressive feat to even try to take this film
lightly. This makes the film an extremely powerful one.
Joaquin Phoenix is an alcoholic, sex-focussed World War II
veteran trying to adjust himself into regular life. In doing this he stows away
on a yacht thinking that he could get a job putting his experience as a seaman
to good use. By pure coincidence, he finds a man who claims to be able to heal
him. Both intrigue and a spiral into insanity ensue.
Definitively the best aspect of this movie is the two lead
performances from Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Both characters are
equally eccentric Freddie Quell (Phoenix) is like a drunken aggressive Forrest
Gump and Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) is eerily manipulative, tricking people into
believing his fabricated superiority. While each character is good in their own
right, the way in which they affect each other is fantastic. The scenes
focussed on these two characters in particular are by far the best in the film.
The first scene that shows Dodd’s ‘processing’ methods is a totally captivating
one as Dodd absolutely tears through Quell’s past, travelling directly through
the event horizon of emotion with huge power. Honestly, the scene is so good
that I would recommend for no reason other than watching it.
That is not to say that it is the film’s only merit. The
film is an aesthetically brilliant one. Not only are all the shots especially
well composed (not to mention the complexity of some of the longer shots in the
film. The camera movements take up the entirety of the room they are shooting
in, moving around pillars while capturing some very well directed and memorable
action) but the film also utilises a variety of lighting choices. Most of the
film is brightly lit; most of the walls in the any scene are a brilliant white,
somewhat reflecting how highly Dodd’s followers see him (the light scenes
almost all have large amounts of people and the darker ones are between no more
than three).
One very interesting point about this movie is how someone
may interpret its standpoint. There are enough characters with differing
opinions of Dodd’s methods to give you an entire banquet for thought. At no
point is Dodd entirely ousted as a charlatan nor does he ever admit it. It is
hinted at but is not a certainty. This uncertainty means that it can be taken
in a huge amount of ways. There are
parts of the film that seem in favour of the power of alternative therapy and
some that seem against it. Because of this, the film can be interpreted in
hugely different ways depending on the viewer.
The Master is an incredibly tense and thought-provoking film
about an eerily magnetic man who declares the healing powers of his methods.
Two massively complex central performances shoot this film into greatness. It
is powerful, endlessly engaging and also inhabits the entire spectrum of
emotions.
The Master receives a: 9/10
