Review of Magnolia (1999) by John M — 14 Jun 2012
Phenomenal acting and direction. Paul Thomas Anderson made this epic drama when he was only 29, which is highly impressive, as he is such a gifted and visionary director at such a young age. Magnolia examines the lives and problems of a number of interconnecting people in the San Fernando Valley.
There are two things you should know right off the bat before you decide to watch this: 1. if you don't like depressing movies, this was not made for you; you are getting elbow deep into these people's personal lives like a private investigator, and 2.
the runtime on this is an intimidating three hours; it doesn't feel like 188 minutes, because all of these stories are absolutely enthralling, but still, you should be prepared to sit down for that long.
The opening of Magnolia is faaaantastic; it may just be my favorite opening thirteen minutes in ANY film, and I frequently pop in the DVD just to watch it. The story is intricately designed, and it is all extremely well edited and put together, as it needs to be, as this is a juggling act between all of these stories.
Out of all of the performances, I would say that Julianne Moore shines the brightest in a very emotionally draining role. The only part that kind of takes me out of the movie is the music video interlude going into the third act which kind of comes out of nowhere, but PTA is clearly in love with Aimee Mann, so I can forgive it.
A lot of people have problems with the ending, but I don't; I admire it for being so different and besides, these problems are so big, it makes sense for something of biblical proportions to solve them.
It's not a perfect movie, but it's superclose.
This review of Magnolia (1999) was written by John M on 14 Jun 2012.
Magnolia has generally received positive reviews.
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