Magnolia, a street that runs through the San Fernando Valley, is the setting for the intersection of various characters’ lives, all played out throughout one day. At the heart of the film is the television quiz show What do Kids Know? Produced by Earl Partridge and presented by Jimmy Gator, both of who are dying of cancer. The story is dictated by the offshoots of these central characters: Partridge’s nurse, who obeys his patient’s dying wish and finds his estranged son Frank (Tom Cruise), who runs a refreshingly politically incorrect organisation on how to exploit and seduce women; his wife Linda, who comes to realise that she does have strong (if unlikely) feelings for him; contestant on the game show Stanley, who is dominated by his father; and drug addict Claudia, who has been abused by father Jimmy Gator and who meets police officer Jim Kurring, a man intent on seeking out the crimes of society but never recognising them for what they truly are.
As with the many American films intent on exploring and connecting the lives of quirky, slightly eccentric characters, Magnolia only partially succeeds in its ambitious goal. While the performances, in particular Philip Seymour Hoffman as the nurse, are consistently strong (although Cruise seems too earnest to carry a predominantly comic role), there are simply too many characters and too many emotions for the audience to sympathise with. Just as we get to enjoy the characters for what they really are, their personal tragedies appear and we are left with raw, unrelenting emotion which both blocks their potential as individuals and drags on throughout most of the film. It seems that when writing the script, auteur Anderson forgot that emotion is at its strongest when underplayed, thereby allowing the audience to use their imagination. The film quickly descends into confession upon confession, and from there into sentiment, from which it never really recovers. In order to displace narrative with characterisation, the audience must empathise with the characters enough to stick with them throughout, and this is where the film falls down. The set-up is strong, with the idea of coincidence defining lives thematic to the piece as a whole, but seeing as these characters would never occupy film space in any other script, they don’t convince in this story either. As an interesting experiment with strong direction and visuals, it is worth a look, but unless a three hour therapy session is your idea of fun, it might be best to look elsewhere.
As with the many American films intent on exploring and connecting the lives of quirky, slightly eccentric characters, Magnolia only partially succeeds in its ambitious goal. While the performances, in particular Philip Seymour Hoffman as the nurse, are consistently strong (although Cruise seems too earnest to carry a predominantly comic role), there are simply too many characters and too many emotions for the audience to sympathise with. Just as we get to enjoy the characters for what they really are, their personal tragedies appear and we are left with raw, unrelenting emotion which both blocks their potential as individuals and drags on throughout most of the film. It seems that when writing the script, auteur Anderson forgot that emotion is at its strongest when underplayed, thereby allowing the audience to use their imagination. The film quickly descends into confession upon confession, and from there into sentiment, from which it never really recovers. In order to displace narrative with characterisation, the audience must empathise with the characters enough to stick with them throughout, and this is where the film falls down. The set-up is strong, with the idea of coincidence defining lives thematic to the piece as a whole, but seeing as these characters would never occupy film space in any other script, they don’t convince in this story either. As an interesting experiment with strong direction and visuals, it is worth a look, but unless a three hour therapy session is your idea of fun, it might be best to look elsewhere.