Film 48

Magnolia (1999)

Director: P.T. Anderson

Has Fentablar seen this before?: No.

Magnolia is a film which is well directed and well acted, yet overall I felt bemused by the film after viewing it. It seemed to me that the film's overall plot and the individual character arcs were lacking. In my opinion, I felt the oveall plot lacked due to how indirectly some of the charcters acrs were linked. The character arcs themselves, though very well-written, were somewhat ineffectual on a personal level (this, in fact, has much to do with my delay writing a commentary).

With regard to how the character arcs were linked, there seemed to be a near complete separation of Cruise's character arc from the rest. There is a very loose tie that can be explained, but that connection is so loose that it had no effect whatsoever with me. It seemed as though Cruise's (and Moore's) character arcs could have been handled as a separate film from the rest of Magnolia.

Again, the individual character arcs were well-written and I appreciate how they were carried out, both in direction and acting. However, they did not "hit home" for me and therefore did not have as much of an emotional impact as I imagine was intended. I could only connect with most of the characters to a certain extent, but I couldn't fully appreciate them. Some characters I did appreciate more than others but I don't think there was a single charcter that I could fully connect with on an emotional level.

From an aesthetic point of view, Magnolia is a very well-done film. It's unfortunate that it didn't have the emotional impact with me that I think it intended to convey. It's not one I'm filing away forever, though - I'll view it at least once more to see if it has a different impact. Sometimes the first viewing doesn't quite have the impact of further viewings, as I learned with The Big Lebowski.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Plot Effectiveness: 4/5. Again, the emotional impact was lacking for me, though most of the film was well-written.

Cinematography/Shot Selection: 5/5. Well done from an aesthetic point of view.

Overall Acting: 4/5. I though the acting was very good, yet if I feel the emotional impact was lacking, it could very well have been the acting just as easily as it could be the writing.

Score/Soundtrack: 5/5. One thing is for certain, the lack of emotional impact had nothing to do with the film's soundtrack.

OVERALL RATING: 4.5/5

~Fentablar~