Lucas
Versantvoort / March 10, 2013
There is a
certain difficulty in reviewing a film like The Master. It’s hard to
figure out if it’s a good film or not, because in doing so you’re required to
thoroughly analyze it, which isn’t the purpose of a review. In a review I can
only give an overview of the plot, share some of my observations and my opinion
of the film. So…
…What is The Master about?
It’s about many things or rather: it can be about many things depending
on how you read it. Among other things, it’s about a cult/movement; it’s about
psychology; about the effect of war on the individual (PTSD among other
things); it’s about the complex relationship between two men; it’s about the
cult versus the world; about manipulation; it’s about the master-follower
relationship, etc. The main character in all this is Freddie Quell (Joaquin
Phoenix), a Naval veteran returning from WWII. After he stumbles through daily
life, he accidentally comes across Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the
leader of a cult (or ‘movement’) known as The Cause. He becomes intrigued by
Dodd and decides to follow him. Thus begins a long and complex relationship
between the two.
 |
| The poster as seen in France |
Leaving the plot out, the things I
can more easily qualify as good or bad (good in this case) are the performances
by the leading trio (Phoenix, Hoffman and Adams), the cinematography and Jonny
Greenwood’s score. These are things I can use to judge this film a good one.
Phoenix (after a four years without a film credit to his name) returns to the
field of acting with a fantastic performance. Although his performance could be
judged to be of the ‘I am acting!’ variety, I’d say it’s of the tour de
force variety and he always stays in character. Just like in Doubt,
Hoffman gives another impressive and multifaceted performance. Where in Doubt
he had to constantly keep the audience guessing (is he guilty or innocent of
child molestation?), here he has to make the characters (and the audience)
believe he truly understands what he’s saying, while simultaneously hinting
he’s ‘making it up as he goes along’. Amy Adams is also one of the most
interesting and varied actresses today. Even though her role in The Master
is limited, it’s unlike anything she’s done and there’s an interesting twist
regarding her husband-wife relationship with Hoffman. Jonny Greenwood’s score
is just as intriguing as his score for Anderson’s There Will Be Blood,
utilizing percussion and strings to create interesting soundscapes. It’s one of
those scores that just fits the film.
But only discussing these aspects of
The Master is like discussing Last Year at Marienbad without
mentioning its plot and the difficulty in interpreting it. As mentioned, I’ll
share my observations about The Master. I won’t devolve into analysis,
however – you can read articles like this
and this
for that, if you’re interested.
It’s a film whose screenplay was the
subject of much critique and even though I can see why (Anderson was inspired
by so many diverse things that the finished film seems like a series of random
events), but the script also has many things going for it. For instance, many
events in the film tie in with later events. Consider the many times Lancaster
Dodd asks Quell where they’ve met before; Quell’s sand sculpture with which the
film also ends; how Quell emulates Dodd by ‘processing’ a woman he’s sleeping
with, etc.
Ultimately, the chances you’ll enjoy
The Master are rather high, simply because of the fantastic acting,
music and cinematography. Whether you’ll think of The Master as
something more will depend on how much time and effort you’re willing to spend
on analyzing and dissecting it. Did I like The Master? Yes, I did. I
liked it for many reasons, one of them being that I didn’t completely
understand it after it was over. I didn’t understand it, but I didn’t feel like
I had watched something meaningless. This may be an inherently wrong reason to
like a film, but 2001: A Space Oddysey wouldn’t be so interesting if it
had divulged its secrets during the first viewing. It’s the film that
reportedly made Rock Hudson shout out in the theater: “Will someone please tell
me what the hell this is about” and now 2001 is one of the world’s most
famous films. Or consider Last Year at Marienbad again. Its director,
Alain Resnais, once said his film has no meaning…but people are still talking
about it even now. Whether The Master will have a similar fate is
something only time will tell…
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