Magnolia
# 2 Best of Film of 1999
A young man is praying to find love, a woman who will want to marry him. This young woman, however, is on cocaine to help numb the pain caused by being sexually abused by her father. This father is a popular game show host who has just found out he is quickly dying of cancer and wants to set his wrongs right but his daughter won't have anything to do with him.
Meanwhile, an elderly man lies in his luxurious home dying of cancer, wanting to make amends to his estranged son. His young wife, having married him just for the money, has fallen in love with him as she has cared for him and is being torn up inside for cheating on him. The old man's estranged son, who cared for his dying mother when the man up and left them alone, is giving live seminars on how to make women do what you ask of them.
These richly defined characters are woven in with five other evocative characters to create one of the most unique and engaging tales of the year.
Written and directed by the thoughtful, poetic, and masterful Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia catches in an extraordinary way how the sins of the fathers and mothers are etched into our person, and at death, how the pain and guilt of our sins is just as unbearable as the disease that may be eating at us.
Magnolia is a film about redemption, turning points, and uncanny but remarkable coincidences, or things that happen though we can't understand why or how. Performances by this ensemble cast are rich and moving, especially from the wonderful Julianne Moore, the soft-giant Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the suprising Tom Cruise, who stole the show as a salesman for the getting-your-girl seminar, just to name a few.
Aimee Mann's soundtrack is poignant and very pleasing to the ears. (I love the sequence of scenes where each of the characters sing part of the song about trying to change. Very effective.)
Read the review of American Beauty, my choice for the #1 Film of 1999.
I hope you don't mind me posting reviews from yester-year. When I'm low on time, it helps publishing these reviews that I've already written. Besides, I'm enjoying rediscovering these films.
I won't be posting Friday or Saturday as I will be out of town. See you Sunday evening. Best wishes to you all!
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