Magnolia (1999)
One of my favorite movies is Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Released in 1999, the drama runs 3 hours and 8 minutes long. I know for many, a movie at this length is a lot to sit through, but I personally love how long the movie is. I feel like we are able to get to know the characters and their environment in much more detail because of the length. Magnolia is a story about lost souls in Los Angeles. All the characters are living their own lives, but their stories are constantly intertwining with one another by coincidence and divine intervention. Together it creates an epic story. The way that the movie is written is ambitious and complex, but Anderson succeeds. The viewer embarks on an emotional rollercoaster throughout the film.
Magnolia’s characters are all in the throws of addressing the never ending effects of child abuse. The majority of the characters deal with either the weight of their own childhood abuse or the effects of other people’s trama. Each of the character’s are preoccupied with their own roles in abusive cycles. Stanley (Jeremy Blackman), is a child game show star is treated terribly by his abusive father. Misfit, Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) was a former child celebrity who claims his parents stole all his money as he struggles to stay employed. Frank T.J. Makey (Tom Cruise), a celebrity lecturer on pursuing women, was abandoned by his father, (Jason Robarbs) while his mother was dying of cancer when he was a child. The game show’s host, Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hoffman), tries to make amends with his drug abusing daughter, Claudia Wilson (Melora Walters), who he may or may not have sexually abused. This movie is one that gets better with repeated viewings. During my first watch, I didn’t quite understand that one of the ways that all these characters are connected is through their shared struggles of childhood trauma, but upon my second viewing it was very apparent.
The detail that Anderson put into Magnolia is stunning. Warning: spoilers ahead! At the climactic end of the film, when all the characters are at their lowest, it suddenly starts to rain frogs with great, bloody intensity. This bizarre, divine intervention interrupts the characters downward spiral. Throughout the movie, the numbers 8 and 2 are hidden in plain sight through out, and in one scene there is a sign held up that says “EXODUS 8:2”.
Exodus 8:2 is the plague of frogs. “But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs, and they will come into your palace and up to your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and your people, and into your ovens and kneading bowls…” Initially I noticed the hidden symbols, but I had no idea that it was foreshadowing a divine intervention. The frog rain illustrates how desperately the characters of this picture are in need of help from something larger than themselves. Anderson uses small details like hidden numbers to lead up to something as great as God’s punishment. This evidence of God makes me think about the idea of an all seeing being and how privacy is an invisible right.
Magnolia is one of those movies that I feel very deep in my soul. The emotional pain of the characters is felt through the screen and into your soul. Very few films I’ve watched I have finished watching with the same intensity as I have with Magnolia. It’s the kind of film you watch and think and think about the people closest to you and yourself. Everything from the beautiful soundtrack to the converging of threads makes this a very special experience.
Opening scene from Magnolia, sets the tone for the whole movie.
Introduction to all the characters with a beautiful song by Aimee Mann playing in the background.
