There are sand titties in this movie.
P.T. Anderson's filmography (Boogie Nights, Hard Eight, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood) meant that I was probably going to see The Master no matter what. So I went last night with Rachel and Johnny to Cedar-Lee. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the lamp on the digital projector went dead about halfway through the movie, which meant that we got an impromptu 15-minute intermission.
This movie is too long. I generally feel that way about movies that are longer than two hours, but I also felt that The Master started out strong and finished weak. At the start, the film draws you in, obliquely introducing one very interesting and troubled character (Freddy Quill, played by Joaquin Phoenix), then another interesting and troubled character (Lancaster Dodd / The Master, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Those two characters, and the performances by the actors, are the main attraction, although Amy Adams (as Dodd's wife, Peggy) isn't at all bad in her part. However, after about halfway through the movie, after we've become pretty well acquainted with the characters, the movie kind of stagnates. The ending is anti-climactic and leaves a lot of things open for interpretation. The latter is true throughout the movie; not much is told to us, and the audience is left to read and interpret for themselves. In particular, it's difficult to guess exactly what PSH's character really feels and thinks; JP does a great job of acting with his face and his body, telling us much more than what his character reveals in his short (but often very intimate) lines of dialogue.
The movie looks good. Just before leaving for the theater I read that this was Anderson's first feature film made without his regular cinematographer, Robert Elswit. But there were still those signature long, single shots, and a mix of other cool shots (a repeated image of water in the wake of a boat, or a tracking shot of a motorcycle speeding through the desert). There was one curious scene where Joaquin Phoenix's face goes in and out of focus as he leans forward and back in his char; it looks like just bad camerawork but I have to assume it was intentional.
Watch this movie for the acting, and it won't disappoint. Something about the way Joaquin Phoenix mumbles out of the side of his mouth reminds me of Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain (but without the bad accent). And he excels in some of the more violent and physical scenes in the movie. In terms of character arc, his is the biggest, but it's not entirely clear what, exactly, his transition represents, or whether it's a good thing or a bad thing for him. It's a character and a performance that are unlike anything else I've seen in film. Unfortunately, I don't think the rest of The Master measures up in quality, leaving it not one of my favorite P.T. Anderson movies. But, if you look at his list of films, it kind of flip-flops between great and not-great, so his next movie should be awesome.
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