Sunday 10 August 2014

Magnolia (4 Stars)


Things go round and round.

This is a film that I find it very difficult to write about. It tells several unrelated stories, only connected by the fact that they all take place on the same day, and some of the people know each other. A recurring theme in the stories is the alienation between children and their parents. And then there are the frogs falling from the sky.

It's a fascinating film that kept me glued to the screen from beginning to end. But when it finished I had an empty feeling. I was expecting the stories to be somehow linked together in a final scene, but they weren't. That was the point. Things happen side by side every day. We don't live in a well-scripted cinematic universe. When I leave home in the morning I say hello to my neighbours. It could be that several of us have intense personal dramas before we go to bed in the evening. And yet the only connection between these dramas was a simple greeting in the morning.

2 comments:

  1. The stories are all connected by Earl Patridge.
    The interconnection is hinted at in the prologue.
    This, please, cannot be that… this was not just a matter of chance ...

    One of my top films of all time, and what a soundtrack.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I know that the connections are there. That's the whole point. The connections aren't visible, but they exist. It's left open to speculation whether the connections are by design or by chance. I enjoyed the film, but obviously not as much as you.

      Delete

Tick the box "Notify me" to receive notification of replies.