Magnolia

Magnolia is over three hours long, and yet, I never even for a moment found my mind wandering. Rather, I was completely captivated from the opening documentary scenes to the inexplicably strange and absolute end. The opening documentary I refer to is completely separate to the events in the story. Instead, it offers some explanation for life. It covers three strange events. The first: A man from Greenberryhill is killed by three men: Mr. Green, Mr. Berry, and Mr. Hill. The second: A man is lifted from the water while he scuba-dives by a fire control plane picking up water. The man conducting the plane got into a scuffle with the scuba-diver days earlier. He kills himself in confusion and depression after the scuba-diver's death. The third and most interesting: A man jumps from a building and on his descent is shot with a shotgun. The shotgun was shot by his mother. He loaded the shotgun days earlier hoping that she would kill his father. In his attempted suicide, he would have failed if not for the shotgun, for nets had been installed for window workers the previous day. The mother is arrested for homicide, and the deceased is named as an accomplice in his own death. After this, we are immediately thrust into the story, and a series of vignettes connect a group of around seven or eight people. There are a lot of great actors in the film: Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy to name a brief few. They act the film with such emotion, such poignancy. The entire film covers subjects from death to depression. The stories include a man who is dying of cancer, two women addicted to drugs, a whizz kid forced to compete on game shows, a middle aged man who thinks he needs braces, a cop, a sex motivational speaker. They all convene in themes of depression or some other form of connectedness. What occurs in the film is intriguing, but more intriguing is why what's happening to them is happening to them. In the last scene of the film, something extraordinary and unexpected happens. It surprises these characters and shatters their world. Magnolia is a complicated allegory for life. It exhibits the strangeness of life, and the importance of surprises. Great.
Magnolia: ★★★★