Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams
Grade: B+

Sometimes the controversial or provocative subject matter in a film can dominate the conversation and overshadow the film itself. The Master, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is one such movie. Yes, it is a thinly veiled attack on Scientology, there is no question about that and there shouldn’t be. The thing that seems to get missed is that Anderson and his cast aren’t interested in convincing you that Scientology is a fraud, they just accept that it is and move on with the story. To say The Master is a film about the evils of Scientology is like saying Schindlers List is a movie about the evils of Nazism, or The Dark Knight is about the evils of the mob and clowns. This movie is both much simpler than that and much more complex, a simple attack on Scientology is far too easy for a director of the caliber of Anderson. What the film is really concerned with are two men who are drawn to each other despite their best interests, despite the disruption and chaos they cause in each other’s lives. They bring out the worst in each other, though occasionally the best.

The plot follows Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix), a sailor, returning home from war and struggling with a vicious case of PTSD and alcoholism, though it seems clear he had some mental issues beforehand. He drifts around until his special moonshine nearly kills an old man and he’s accused of poisoning him, so he stows away on a boat of what appears to be a well-to-do gathering. There he meets the charismatic Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the leader of The Cause, a cult like collection of people who believe in past and future lives and seek to perfect the soul as it is the true being and the body being merely a vessel. Dodd immediately takes a liking to Freddie’s moonshine and takes him in. The story then goes broad, following Dodd as he evangelizes The Cause, tries to cure Freddie, while his wife, Peggy (Amy Adams), keeps a tight rein on him and his own demons. Also, periodically Freddie flips out and beats the living shit out of anyone who publicly questions Dodd and his beliefs. These are two men headed toward self-destruction, one who is perfectly okay with that, while one is desperately trying to prove there is no crazy. If Dodd can cure Freddie, there just might be hope for himself.

Hoffman and Adams steal the show here. Hoffman brings charisma, danger, instability, manipulation, and boat loads of charm to the role of Lancaster Dodd and makes it so much his own character that the viewer doesn’t need to think of the comparisons to L. Ron Hubbard, because Dodd is his own man with his own set of problems. Amy Adams, meanwhile, keeps herself controlled to the point of unease and to where we understand that while Lancaster is manipulating everyone around him and bending them to his will, Peggy is pulling the strings on him. Peggy never loses her cool, never raises her voice, but is very calmly, and confidently, critical of anything that doesn’t support the survival of The Cause.

The problem here is Phoenix. Joaquin has become like a darker, more twisted, Johnny Depp. He can play weird, strange, intense, and quirky characters very well but seems to leave it at that. Like his Burton-lovin’ peer, he fails to find the humanity in these strange characters he creates. In The Master, there are a few scenes where Freddie feels genuine, and I’m referring to almost any scene where he’s one on one with Hoffman, but for the most part he comes up short. We need to follow Freddie through this movie but he’s just not very empathetic and any time he’s on screen without Hoffman or Adams the film kind of drags.

Destructive friendships don’t always have to end in destruction, and the end of Freddie’s journey, at least the one we see on screen, feels very satisfactory. Of course, the film doesn’t let him off completely easy and it’s slightly ambiguous, but it at least sets up the possibility that he might just have a life ahead of him after all. Dodd, meanwhile, seems to be the true prisoner at the end, chained to The Cause he himself created, his actions seemingly completely out of his control. Their friendship is unsustainable because one wants to conquer the world while the other is simply okay with trying to live in it for a while. Neither man is free, one a prisoner of mental illness and alcoholism, the other a prisoner of ambition, though whose ambition is not entirely evident.

Buy this movie!

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8870397&style=movie&frm=lk_Somedamnfool