The Master **** (2012, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams) – Classic Movie Review 6667

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams in The Master.

Joaquin Phoenix stars in The Master (2012) as Freddie Quell, a World War Two US naval veteran having trouble integrating back into civilian life and undergoing a series of breakdowns. This leads him to being drawn to a philosophical cult called The Cause, with its exercises to clear the emotions, and especially to its supposedly charismatic leader, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s much praised film is a worthy but an uncomfortable, slightly difficult experience, and perhaps most notable for the high quality of its acting. And it was nominated for three Oscars, Golden Globes and Baftas – Phoenix as Best Actor, Hoffman as Best Supporting Actor and Amy Adams as Best Supporting Actress as Dodd’s wife, Peggy. Anderson got a fourth Bafta nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Phoenix, Hoffman and Adams are indeed remarkable, more remarkable than the movie, though of course it is Anderson’s intelligent screenplay that gives them the chance to shine. It is easy to admire The Master but less easy to like it (especially at 138 minutes), though, as usual with Anderson, it is quite beautifully, lovingly crafted.

Paul Thomas Anderson was born in 1970.

The Master is more special celluloid from the director of Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood and Punch-Drunk Love. Philip Seymour Hoffman acted in all of them, except There Will Be Blood. He died on February 2 2014, aged 46.

Joaquin Phoenix reunited with Anderson for the 2014 Inherent Vice. Anderson’s 2017 Phantom Thread is Anderson’s eighth feature as writer-director.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6667

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