The Master Reviewed by Mark Adams
Paul Thomas Anderson’s polished, provocative and at times stirringly powerful The Master might lack the sheer dramatic bravura of his last film, There Will Be Blood, but its bold story of a lost soul find- ing salvation of a sort in the arms of a charismatic cult leader has lingering resonance and is driven by impressive lead performances from Joaquin Phoe- nix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. To a degree, 2007’s There Will Be Blood would
always be a tough act to follow, though The Master has enough memorable scenes, beautiful imagery, stirring music and skilful dialogue to see it as a con- tender during awards season. The film will likely travel extensively with some controversy in its wake (the link to Scientology has been much written about, though the film is no exposé) and be criti- cally admired for its performances and visual grace. If the film lacks the sense of a real dramatic arc,
then it is simply because it takes a snapshot of a period rather than tell an epic story, and uses the tough-but-tender bromance between cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) and tormented drifter Freddie Quell (Phoenix) as its core. The film opens at the end of the Second World
War, with Navy man Quell in the grip of alcoholism (there are striking shots of him drunk on a South Pacific beach or sleeping it off on a precarious perch high above his ship). He is eventually sent to a VA hospital where Navy psychiatrists probe his issues. After failed work as a photographer in Capwell’s
Department Store and working as an agricultural labourer, in 1950 he drunkenly stows away on board a steam yacht lent to writer, philosopher and scientist (as he describes himself) Lancaster Dodd.
n 20 Screen International at Toronto September 7, 2012
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
US. 2012. 137mins Director/screenplay Paul Thomas Anderson Production companies The Weinstein Company, Ghoulardi Film Company, Annapurna Pictures International sales The Weinstein Company,
weinsteinco.com Producers JoAnne Sellar, Daniel Lupi, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison Executive producers Adam Somner, Ted Schipper Cinematography Mihai Malaimare Jr Editors Leslie Jones, Peter McNulty Production designers Jack Fisk, David Crank Music Jonny Greenwood Main cast Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Ambyr Childers, Rami Malek, Jesse Plemons, Kevin J O’Connor, Christopher Evan Welch, Madisen Beaty
The vessel — in a striking night-time shot in San Francisco harbour — sails for New York, and Quell finds himself under Dodd’s wing… mainly for his skills at making hooch. In one of their meetings Dodd cryptically asks
Quell if he is one of the ‘Hidden Rulers’ or is a com- munist, before tentatively getting Quell to partici- pate in ‘The Process’, in which he asks Quell a series of questions. Dodd, it seems, is the leader of ‘The Cause’, a group that believes each person has lived past lives going back trillions of years, with each body a new vessel for that person. His acolytes call him ‘The Master’. After Dodd has a run-in with a doubter, the con-
tingent — which includes his pregnant wife Peggy (Adams), grown-up son Val (Jesse Plemons, who does look like Hoffman) and recently married daughter Elizabeth (Childers) — heads to Philadel- phia and the home of Helen Sullivan (Dern), a fer- vent member of The Cause. Though still a heavy drinker and at times scepti-
cal of Dodd (whose son Val even tells Quell that Dodd just makes things up as he goes along), Quell is increasingly drawn to this tolerant father figure, and even resorts to violence when police come to arrest Dodd. Quell continues with his processing, and even
leaves the fold for a while when he feels he has grown enough emotionally to track down Doris (Beaty), his wartime sweetheart. Perhaps she held the possibility of full redemption for him, but on finding she is married Quell is drawn back to The Master, who has relocated to England. Though the film essentially follows Quell and
his journey from drunken wreck to a man more levelled (though never fully balanced) by his asso- ciation with The Cause, the core of is the film is
Lancaster Dodd himself. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a charismatic performer, and here his almost messianic role gives him full range to seduce, charm, challenge, provoke and entrance and he delivers a performance that will likely see awards attention. And he is nicely balanced by Joaquin Phoenix whose mesmeric physicality (he is all slumped shoulders, hands on hips and bristling with suppressed rage) acts as a perfect counterbal- ance to the gentle charisma of Dodd. Amy Adams offers equally fine support. Her
character may not have as much to do in the film, but she really makes an impact in one scene when it becomes clear that on the surface her Peggy may appear the simple supportive wife but behind closed doors she is perhaps more the stern zealot than Lancaster himself. The Master somehow lacks a real dramatic high
that suits the gripping introduction to The Cause — and the final switch to England seems rather pointless and could have been set anywhere, meaning the film meanders to its conclusion rather than end on a satisfying dramatic high.
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