Review of Magnolia (1999) by Joey S — 05 Jul 2013

Magnolia is a movie that really shouldn't work. It's three hours long, incredibly ambitious, and more than anything very weird. However, the ensemble cast is so great (Tom Cruise and Philip Baker Hall especially) and the story is engaging despite its absurd moments that Magnolia actually makes for a very interesting movie that succeeds against all odds.

It follows a group of people that are all loosely connected to each other and are going through crises in their lives. Tom Cruise, who I generally dislike as a human being, is actually really great in his role as a misogynistic motivational speaker of sorts who advertises a surefire way to have sex with any woman.

As much as it pains me to say it, he definitely gives a stand-out performance as a character that's equal parts arrogant and tragic. Philip Baker Hall also has a few great moments as a game show host diagnosed with cancer.

He provides one of the most emotional scenes of the movie when he suddenly just breaks down on-air and can't form a coherent sentence. The movie makes it clear that the themes of the story are fate and chance, and it addresses this by inserting a few preposterous events in the story to show that there are no coincidences in life.

The ending is so strange that I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone, but to give an example of an absurd moment is when all the characters take a break from the story to individually sing along to an Aimee Mann song.

All the characters are listening and singing along to the same song at the same time, which is ridiculously unlikely to happen in reality and that's the point. Paul Thomas Anderson is almost laughing at us by tricking us into thinking that everything in the movie is plausible, and then throwing a complete curveball at us like a spontaneous Aimee Mann sing-along and, well, the ending of the movie, which defies all logic but is strangely satisfying.

Magnolia is definitely not a typical movie, and I'm sure many people will be irritated by its length and unusual ending. However, the story and characters are so interesting that it's actually worth sticking with for all three hours.

Give it a chance, and you might be surprised by how enjoyable it is.