Magnolia

Details

Earl Partridge is on his deathbed, riddled with cancer after years of smoking. With only days left to live and something weighing heavily on his conscience, he confides in his live-in nurse Phil and tells him of his desire to speak to his estranged son, whom he hasn't seen for more than fifteen years.

Phil takes on the task and discovers that Earl's son is none other than Frank T.J. Mackey, a hugely successful motivational speaker whose "Seduce and Destroy" seminars teach men how to attract and control women. Frank wants nothing to do with his father, having never forgiven Earl for abandoning him and his dying mother before marrying a woman half his age.

Meanwhile, former child genius Donnie Smith struggles to make something of his adult life, whilst another young prodigy, Stanley Spector, is being pushed relentlessly by his father to succeed on the television quiz show What Do Kids Know?. The show's veteran presenter Jimmy Gator is himself dying of cancer and desperately trying to reconcile with his estranged daughter Claudia.

Claudia, struggling with her own problems and drug addiction, meets well-meaning police officer Jim Kurring when he is called to her apartment following a disturbance. Around them, these seemingly separate lives continue to cross and overlap throughout one extraordinary day in the San Fernando Valley, with coincidence and circumstance gradually drawing everyone together in increasingly unexpected ways.

Picture & Sound

The picture is superb, with some brilliant colour tones and excellent levels of detail. The film contains plenty of dark interior scenes and the DVD handles them without even appearing to try, maintaining strong black levels and plenty of shadow detail. This is an outstanding transfer and the above-average bit-rate manages to produce a remarkably clean picture without any obvious artifacting or outlining. Entertainment in Video are really starting to get their act together when it comes to producing some top-quality discs.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is functional rather than spectacular, but nevertheless very good. There's a reasonable amount of activity in the surround channels, particularly during the later stages of the film, but given the dialogue-intensive nature of the story it's hardly surprising that much of the soundtrack remains focused towards the front. Most importantly, the dialogue is superbly clear and audible in the centre channel throughout.

Menu & Extras

With the film running for just over three hours there's understandably not much room left on the first disc for extras. Fortunately, those good people at Entertainment in Video haven't forgotten us and, for the same price as a normal single-disc release, they've provided a second disc containing a respectable collection of supplementary material.

The extras are plentiful and interesting and even include a rather bizarre set of Colour Bars. However, rather than simply skipping past them, I'd suggest spending a little time "watching" the bars and using them to correctly adjust your television or projector. You may be pleasantly surprised by the results. It's hardly the most exciting extra ever placed on a DVD, but it can actually prove rather useful.

The Frank T.J. Mackey Seminar was used as promotional material in the States and was actually broadcast on some television stations. Given Tom Cruise's wonderfully convincing performance, you have to wonder how many gullible people actually rang up asking for the material. The lengthy Magnolia Video Diary is also fascinating, if occasionally a little long-winded, following the production from its planning stages through to filming and giving a worthwhile insight into the work that went into such an ambitious production.

Things are rounded off with the teaser trailer, nine television spots, Aimee Mann's Save Me music video and some DVD-ROM material. There's no audio commentary, which is perhaps the most obvious omission, but the video diary in particular provides enough behind-the-scenes information to make this a worthwhile second disc.

Overall

This film left me gob-smacked - and aching after the bum-numbing three hours. Fortunately, unlike the cinema, you can at least hit the pause button when the munchies strike. More importantly, despite that enormous running time, Magnolia rarely feels like a three-hour film. There is so much going on, and so many characters to follow, that the time seems to disappear remarkably quickly.

What starts with a strange collection of Twilight Zone-style coincidences gradually unravels into nine interwoven stories involving people who initially appear to have very little in common. Like 2 Days in the Valley, their paths gradually cross, although Paul Thomas Anderson takes the idea considerably further, constantly jumping between characters without allowing any one story to completely dominate proceedings.

The acting is simply superb across the entire cast. John C. Reilly's desperately sincere police officer is wonderfully likeable, Julianne Moore delivers a suitably frantic performance as Earl's increasingly distraught wife and Philip Seymour Hoffman is excellent as the compassionate nurse attempting to grant a dying man's final wish. William H. Macy, Philip Baker Hall, Melora Walters and Jason Robards are equally impressive and, considering the number of major characters involved, it's remarkable that nobody feels particularly short-changed.

However, the biggest surprise has to be Tom Cruise. Forget the grinning action hero from Top Gun and Mission: Impossible; Frank T.J. Mackey is an arrogant, misogynistic and deeply unpleasant creation who initially appears to have wandered in from a completely different film. Yet as his carefully constructed personality begins to crack, Cruise produces what must surely rank amongst his finest performances. His Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor was thoroughly deserved.

Paul Thomas Anderson's direction is equally impressive. The camera rarely seems to sit still for long, moving between rooms, corridors and characters with some wonderfully elaborate shots, whilst the editing somehow manages to keep the various stories moving without becoming completely confusing. Aimee Mann's songs are also woven beautifully into the film, becoming almost as important as the conventional musical score.

Then there's the final act. Just when you think you've finally worked out where everything is heading, something happens that is so bizarre and unexpected that you'll probably sit staring at the screen wondering whether somebody has slipped something into your drink. I'm certainly not going to spoil it here, but strangely enough, within the peculiar world the film has created, it somehow works.

Magnolia certainly isn't lightweight entertainment and the three-hour running time will undoubtedly put some people off. It demands your attention and there are moments where you may wonder exactly where Anderson is taking you. Stick with it, though, because this is a remarkable piece of cinema with fabulous camerawork, superb performances and enough ideas to fill several lesser films. The accolades plastered across the back of the box are completely justified. Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended.

Special features

• Colour Bars, or are they....?
• Frank T.J. Mackey Seminar
• Teaser Trailer
• Nine TV Spots
• Music Video "Save Me" by Aimee Mann
• Magnolia Video Diary
• DVD-ROM Enhanced