supereva Review of Magnolia

Magnolia (1999)

They should give a warning for films this long

[11 October 2000]

My friend and I went to Magnolia to kill a cloudy Sunday afternoon. It had come out in the international film fest and stayed on at the theatres, so we decided it must be something worth seeing -right? Well, I think all in all it probably WAS, but only just. First of all, they should give a warning for any movie that's over 2 hours long, along with the age restriction warning. Bring back intermissions!! We weren't prepared for the length of this film, and were waiting and waiting for the Big Ending to come throughout the last half of the movie. The thing is, it never does. Sure there is the 'Event', but the film could just as well have ended anywhere from half-way through the film onwards. When the credits finally roll there is no sense of closure, no feeling of being uplifted or moved that comes with a good film. I agree with what others have said regarding the storyline, which begins by teasing us that the theme of 'coincidence' will somehow tie things up at the end, but then it never does. Sure some of the characters cross paths, or are revealed to be in some kind of relationship with one another, but at the end other characters are just left hanging, and we're left wondering what the point of that little 'coincidence' theme intro ever was! The 'Event' for all its glory only partly redeems the disappointing ending, because by the time we made it to the 'Event' we had been ready to leave for about an hour.

The most moving scene was definitely Tom Cruise dealing with his conflicting emotions he gave a fantastic performance and really pulled it off. In fact all of the performances were good, but the plot and structure just did not do these characters any justice. Boogie Nights was definitely better - what a great ending!