"I do many, many things. I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher, but, above all, I am a man. A hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you."
The Master, the newest film created by the movie mastermind Paul Thomas Anderson, is the deepest movie I've seen since i started blogging. It's one of those movies that you can't fully grasp within one viewing, one you respect for it's many layers, messages and themes. I saw Anderson's There Will Be Blood a while back, and ever since, I've had no doubt in my mind that his movies mean something special to me. I've come to the conclusion that they don't fall into one general genre, but that they're in a class for themselves. The Master is just as unique, beautiful and ruthlessly deep and fascinating as There Will Be Blood, and they actually are quite similar, but then again, they're vastly different as well. The same goes for the two main characters in this movie, but more on that later.
The film takes place in post-WWII-America, where the war veteran Freddie Quell finds himself lost, sick and lonely when he gets send home from his ship in the Pacific. He wanders from place to place, never being able to keep his many different kinds of work for long periods of time in a row, because of his social inabilities. After 5 years of travelling America, he ends up on a ship, and aboard this ship he meets Philip Seymour Hoffmann's character Dodd Lancaster, who styles himself as The Master of a religious or spiritual cult/assemble called "The Cause". Freddie gets sucked into the life on the boat and into what The Cause has to offer him, and he becomes close friends with Dodd. The two become strongly connected to each other in many ways, and their odd and powerful relationship becomes the main theme and focus of the rest of the movie.
The Master is like a ogre or an onion. It has layers. Manny many many layers, and I'm convinced that i won't ever stop finding new themes or messages hidden within them, no matter how many times i watch the movie. Writing about this it in it's entirety would take up as much space as all my previous reviews combined, so i'll stick to explaining what i found most fascinating and compelling from watching it just once. One thing that absolutely needs to be discussed, is the inhumane performances by the lead actors. Readers of my Gladiator review will know that I'm a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix, and watching him deliver the performance of a lifetime in The Master has only served to make me treasure him even more. He's unrecognisably, indescribably, absolutely and completely fantastic in this movie. The way he delivers his lines, expresses his thoughts through facial expressions, carries himself and delves into the character of the psychotic Freddie Quell, becomes Freddie Quell, is unheard of, it's breathtaking, it's art, and Hoffmann is almost just at good. I know that many consider Daniel Day Lewis' performance in Lincoln, the guy who by the way won the Oscar for best actor in There Will Be Blood, as the best performance of the year, but to me, Joaquin is just out of this world perfect in The Master, and he puts on my personal favourite performance of 2012.
When it comes to the themes of this deeply layered movie, the one i believe to be the most important one is loneliness, and longing for a loving family. Freddie is lonesome and lost, wet from the rain and tired from travelling, and when he sees Dodd dancing with his wife on their ship, all the members of The Cause watching them, clapping and smiling along, he spontaneously boards the ship, and seeks to become a part of that happy family. Throughout the movie you see several of his unsuccessful attempts at becoming a part of the family, how desperate he is to be loved, and how traumatized he is. The only person who seems to like him is Dodd Lancaster, and Freddie therefore becomes addicted to his friendship. As mentioned above, the two of them are virtually complete opposites; One is outspoken, gallant, clever, popular, rich, confident and powerful, whilst the other one is weak, mentally unstable, socially incapable, drunk, traumatized, insecure and hateful. At the same time though, and this where it gets really really good, the two have many striking similarities. They're both alchemists, for an example. Freddie is capable of brewing moonshine from virtually anything; paint thinner, torpedo fuel, bread, fruit or medicine, and he's so good at it that Dodd becomes almost addicted to his brewery. Dodd on the other hand creates his intoxicating substance though speeches, by preaching and through psychoanalytical sessions, all of which Freddie becomes addicted to, so much so that he beats up people who dares to question Dodds methods. Both of them create something that the other one needs, and they end up actually needing each other.
The Cause, the movement witch Dodd Lancaster has created, is considered by almost anyone who has seen The Master, to be an early version of Scientology. It's never actually called Scientology in the film, but it's pretty obvious that this is what Paul Thomas Anderson intended, with all the talk of the human body being a vessel for the soul, previous lives and man being more than an animal; a perfect creature. Anderson doesn't display Scientology as a completely good thing however. It's visible how Dodd's views and ways of thinking sometimes change to make things easier to explain or understand, and when confronted with criticism, the weak points of The Cause's way of thinking become clearer. Freddie begins to question whether what he's doing is right, but because of his addiction to The Cause and to Dodd, he stays deeply immersed in its reality. The Cause ends up owning him, it becomes something he cannot control himself, and this inner struggle of Freddie's is sort of the main "battle" of The Master, along with Dodd's struggle to run his "cult". It's very hard to explain much of this because it's so very complicated to fully grasp, and I'm worried that what I'm writing wont do the movie justice. These are just my main thoughts about The Master, and i strongly recommend anyone who hasn't seen it yet to go ahead and do so.
The fact that you can make up your own ideas of what this great movie is about, is one of the many fantastic things about Anderson's latest film; there's no final or conclusive answer to the many questions you're left with after watching it. The more i think about this movie, the more i fall in with it, and i honestly didn't think it was that good at first. I never doubted that the acting was some of the finest I've seen in years, but the story and the many layers took some time for me appreciate. I've come to the conclusion that i don't have to fully grasp The Master's complete content, all it's themes and messages, and that letting go and just allowing Paul Thomas Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffmann to take my mind on a thrilling adventure is the way to go about The Master.
Grading this movie is the toughest thing I've had to do for as long as i can remember. Anderson deserves the rating of movie magic for his magnificent vision and gorgeous cinematography (i didn't get to talk about he latter in this review, but it's fan-freaking-tastic), and Phoenix's flat out spellbinding lead performance also deserves my greatest praises. However, the movie as a whole did not entertain me as much as it amazed and surprised me. Its first impression wasn't top notch, and when compared to my favourite movies in terms of raw entertainment and storytelling, it simply just isn't worth a 6/6. The Master's acting, character development, artistic features, thought provoking nature and beautiful cinematography is something i would gladly pay to experience many times again though, and it is therefore absolutely, completely and undoubtedly worth buying on BluRay. (5/6)
The Master IMDb page here
The Master trailer here
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