The Master

I must admit that the first 30 minutes of this were rough for me. It seemed all so tedious and I was waiting for the film to get going. Not what I expect from a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. He is one of my favorite directors and has in the past spoiled us with his works. Hence, I was a bit cautious at first.

However, as soon as Philip Seymour Hoffman enters the stage (so to say) the film does become the master piece (no pun intended) it is by so many said to be. For a long while it was lauded as the best film of 2012 and groomed as a sure thing for award season. But the film year is a long one and the attention span of the members of various academies and associations is rather short. What it did get, in the end, at the big one (Oscars), was recognition for the stellar acting of the main characters. Of course, they never stood a chance and the Academy did not dish out any surprises this year.

This is the story of a lost young man named Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), disillusioned after the war and prone to violence and his unlikely friendship and devotion to Lancaster Dodd ('The Master'/Hoffman), who may or may not be fashioned after L. Ron Hubbard. The cult (no, no, not a cult, surely) is known as The Cause and it doesn't seem to do any actual harm but enthralls the followers in regression therapy and lulls them with words spoken (made up?) by Dodd. There is some minor legal trouble of the financial kind, of course, but then there always is.

Dodd now wishes to help Freddie through his aggression by having him repeat either answers or short walks from one end of the room to the other and loudly stating what the wall or the window feel like when he touches them.

The scenes with Hoffman and Phoenix in them, mostly in conversation, are wonderful to watch and are what makes this film so special.

Joaquin Phoenix really is a gorgeous man and Philip Seymour Hoffman sings!

8/10