A long, sweeping
masterpiece of a
movie that lures you in with an unconventional
prologue and then squeezes you and squeezes you, like a wet
sponge, until finally plunging you back into the
water at the end. If you haven't seen the movie, don't read this writeup. Go watch the movie. Then think about it for a good long time and maybe watch it again. If you still need handholding through the
plot, come back and read this. Yes, there are spoilers.
Most people describe the movie as "seven intertwined stories," but that's not really true at all. Paul Thomas Anderson, the writer/director, describes it as one single story. It may take more than one viewing for you to notice it, but every single character is connected to every single other character, and at the center of it is Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), producer of the TV game show "What Do Kids Know?". Earl is an old man now, on his deathbed, dying of cancer. He asks his nurse, Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman), to find his son who he hasn't spoken to in over ten years: Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise).
Frank is the creator of the Seduce and Destroy program, which teaches men how to, basically, seduce and destroy any woman they choose. His character is summed up very well by his first line in the film: "Respect the cock...and tame the cunt! Tame it!" When his mother, Lily, got cancer, Earl left them, forcing Frank to take care of her while she died a slow, painful death. This fucked him up, bad.
Linda Partridge (Julianne Moore), Earl's young trophy wife, is going completely fucking nuts. She knows she's prominently featured in Earl's will, but she wants to get it changed because she's had a change of heart and doesn't think she deserves any of his money -- she cheated on him for years and years and now, as he's dying, she's fallen in love with him for real, and it's killing her right along with him. She suddenly becomes extremely protective of Earl, and the last thing she wants is for Frank to come back into his life before he dies, because she knows how much Frank hates him and how much pain they caused each other. And she doesn't want Earl experiencing any more pain than he already is.
Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall) is the long-time host of "What Do Kids Know?". He himself has just found out that he has cancer. When he learns this, he decides to try to reconcile with his daughter, Claudia (Melora Walters). But she hates him, almost as much as she hates herself, because he molested her as a child.
Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) is a divorced cop. A real loser. Insecure. He meets Claudia when he's called to her apartment for a noise disturbance. He falls in love with her as soon as she opens the door, despite her bloodshot eyes and runny nose from the lines of cocaine she's constantly doing.
Quiz Kid Donny Smith (William H. Macy) rocketed to fame in the early years of "What Do Kids Know?", and is now an unsuccessful appliance salesman because his parents stole all his money. He's desperately in love with Brad the Bartender, who has a mouth full of braces. Donny decides that getting corrective oral surgery will make Brad notice him, but his plans to ask his boss for a loan backfire when he's fired from his job. His breakdown in the bar is one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie.
Finally, Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) is a modern-day "Quiz Kid", a wunderkind who is undefeated on "What Do Kids Know?". But he's not at all happy. His verbally-abusive father has only one thing on his mind -- prize money. And Stanley has only one thing on his mind -- he wants to be a meteorologist. He's fascinated with weather. But nobody cares about this. They just want him to answer stupid questions.
This film is brilliant in every way imaginable. Script, acting, cinematography, music. It's the sort of film that seems to physically pull you closer and closer to the screen and leaves you gasping for air until the very last split second before it jumps to black and the credits roll -- that last tiny fraction of a second in which Claudia Gator quickly glances at the camera and you see the tiniest glint of a smile. A real smile. A happy smile.
This movie left me happy. There is hope after all.