The Perpetual Emotions of Magnolia
For Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson announced right from the get go that anything is possible in this film and he uses that setting to beautifully bring a set of characters to the brink of their emotions.
All of Anderson’s work has characters dealing with some big emotions. Whether it’s Sydney quietly brewing in Hard Eight (1996), everyone being fueled by coke in Boogie Nights (1997), Barry erupting in Punch Drunk Love (2002), Daniel Plainview’s insane bursts of violence in There Will Be Blood (2007) or Freddie Quell crazily rambling through The Master (2012), Anderson’s characters’ emotion is always present somewhere. But in Magnolia, it’s not somewhere, it’s everywhere, and it never really stops till those credits roll.
The three stories of coincidence that open the film under the soothing voice of Ricky Jay let the viewer know to check everything you thought you knew at the door and just embrace everything that Anderson is willing to throw at you. And so he does. Slowly ratcheting his characters’ emotional stakes up before bringing them all crashing back down with a rain shower of frogs. Anderson’s amazing group of actors help make this all possible, but his team behind the camera deserves just as much credit for balancing out all of these emotions in a perfect crescendo. The editing is impeccable here, cutting back and forth between our nine or so main characters with ease, never losing us along the way and staggering up the emotion so everything builds off one another. Michael Penn almost always-present score is also a big part of what makes this all work, never letting us rest in silence except for a few key moments that require our full attention.
The heightened emotional state of everyone involved really allows these characters and actors to go for it, and we don’t question once, based on the parameters that Anderson has set in that opening scene. Even though Anderson gives his film that sort of free rein, he never lets his cast go over the top. The one character some people might try to point to and blame for breaking that barrier is Melora Walters as Claudia, but I can’t disagree more. Yes, her character has more than a few huge swings of emotion, but she is every bit justified. Being molested by her father has led her to a cocaine addiction, while she tries to fuck her pain away with any guy at the bar. So I totally buy her often-unhinged emotional state.
Just as nearly unhinged is Julianne Moore’s Linda who is ready to punish herself for her sins against her husband, who she falls in love with for the first time in his dying state.
Moore uses the heightened emotional waters to deliver some incredible moments as she battles it out with Tom Cruise for the best work in the film. On paper, Moore’s Linda is going from office to office for all of her scenes, talking to multiple guys behind a desk, but as Anderson slowly reveals her situation and internal dilemma all of the emotion pouring out of Linda makes perfect sense. Moore has more than a handful of great moments here, but that “shut the fuck up” scene has to be my favorite.
William H. Macy and John C. Reilly also take full advantage of the emotional parameters of the film, and while they both have big moments of being upset, it is the way they bring these exaggerated characters to life that resonates so wonderfully. With so many quirks and eccentricities buried in these two, both Reilly and Macy throw out every oddity they can think of to make their respective characters entirely realized and lived in. Without the space that Anderson gives them, they could have come off as rather one note and shallow, but with a runtime like Magnolia and actors as talented as these two we get two wonderful and rich characters that are as original as I’ve ever seen. Seriously, find me an equivalent of either of these guys in any other film.
Jimmy Gator and Stanley’s stories don’t hold back either, but take very different paths even though their stories are told almost simultaneously. Stanley goes through a, sort of, explosion of pent-up aggression as he has passively let everyone push him around. His meltdown on the game show can be stacked up against anyone else in the film, but his story might be the saddest of them all. We see Stanley’s potential future in Macy’s Donnie, and while we can hope for the best as Stanley finally stands up to everyone around him, that final coda with his Dad shows that little might actually change. I hope Stanley heads down a stronger path after the credits roll, but I’m not sure.
Jimmy’s story is so good because it pulls the rug out from under you almost every step of the way. Jimmy is kind of an asshole, but we can forgive him because he is dying. The weight of a terminal cancer diagnosis is ripe for emotional outbursts from the one diagnosed, but Anderson flips everything on its head with Jimmy.
The two months window of life forces Jimmy to want to make some amends, but instead of redeeming himself, the opposite happens. All of Jimmy’s lies and sins are exposed and this old, frail guy we were feeling sorry for, we end up feeling nothing but disgust for.
Tom Cruise takes the cake of emotional swings in Magnolia though, as his Frank T.J. Mackey runs the gauntlet. The manic energy Cruise displays in the Seduce and Destroy seminar bursts off the screen, he pulls you in and makes you want to believe all of the terrible things that he is saying. Cruise is incredible again in the second act of his story as he shuts down for the reporter, before boiling over into a burst of intimidation. The only irk I have with Magnolia is the gotcha journalism aspect of Mackey’s interviewer, whose attack feels false even if Mackey deserves it or not. Cruise doesn’t miss a beat though and his final act with his dying father is one of the saddest things Cruise has ever delivered. No one hits higher highs or lower lows than Mackey in the film and it would feel out of place in any other movie.
The only rest we get once Anderson’s set everyone up is the amazing “Wise Up” musical montage right before the film’s final act. Everyone finds a bit of calm in that song and the viewer is able to breathe again as these characters head towards their final paths of the film. A beautiful moment that will always stand as one of Anderson’s best, and would have come off as ridiculous in any other film besides Magnolia.
Similarly, the frog-falling ending is only understandable because of Magnolia’s insanity. This is the wake up call many of these characters needed to reset their lives after their emotional breakdowns, as they are finally able to stop and ponder after their perpetual states of emotion.
Magnolia is a film full of every emotion and one that feels truthful, due to Anderson’s unique ability to make all the feelings genuine.
by Zac Oldenburg
