Movie Review: The Master

The Master

**** (out of ****)

The Master heralds the beginning of Oscar season and is one of the best movies I have seen all year.  So far.  In the next three months, studios will flood theaters with a barrage of films, hoping to usurp it and it may happen.  But I doubt it.  

The Master tells the story of Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd.  Freddie is a World War II vet that is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.  As portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, Freddie is a walking exposed nerve.  He can't hold down a job, he picks fights, and he drinks anything that contains alcohol.  He lives his life in a perpetual state of intoxication.  After an elderly man gets sick from drinking one of Freddie's homemade "potions", Freddie runs away and takes refuge on the yacht where Lancaster Dodd's (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) daughter is getting married.  Dodd is the charismatic leader of a "religion" called the Cause.  When Dodd and Quell meet for the first time, Dodd is immediately taken with Quell and their  strange, symbiotic relationship is the basis for the rest of the film.

A lot has been made about the Cause and the allusions to Scientology.  If you are heading into The Master hoping to view a scathing indictment of Tom Cruise's chosen religion, you are going to be sorely disappointed.  The movie is less about the cult like religion that Dodd champions and more about the relationship between the enigmatic Dodd and the fiery Quell.  Any scene between Phoenix and Hoffman is dynamite.  

After filming the faux documentary I'm Not Here, where he had people convinced that he was quitting acting to become a rapper, Phoenix redeems himself and shows why he is one of the best actors of his generation.  Phoenix transforms into Quell.  He dives in and never looks back.  From Freddie's facial tics to the trembling that conveys the violence that seems to be ready to burst from him at any moment, Phoenix is extraordinary.  Hoffman is just as phenomenal.  As Dodd, he exudes a quiet calm and confidence and a magnetic charisma.  While Dodd seems to be the antithesis of Quell, there is a quiet rage that simmers just underneath Dodd's genial veneer, that rears it's head most notably when Quell's "Cause" is questioned at a dinner party and in a jail cell confrontation with Quell.  The unsung hero of the film is Amy Adams, who plays Dodd's wife, Peggy.  At first glance, Peggy seems like nothing more than Dodd's dutiful wife, but you quickly learn that Peggy may believe in the Cause more than Dodd himself.  Adams steals every scene she is in and considering the caliber of performances of Phoenix and Hoffman that is a huge accomplishment.  

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson continues his cinematic hot streak.  In his first film since 2007's There Will Be Blood, Anderson has crafted a film that will more than likely find itself gracing the top of critics top 10 lists at years end.  

BOTTOM LINE:  Thought the film meanders a bit, the Oscar caliber writing and direction of Paul Thomas Anderson and the performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams make The Master a must-see for any film fan.