'The Master' - Movie Review

Troubling & Provocative - two words we could use to describe Joaquin Phoenix over the past number of years (see I'm Still Here and make up your mind about what he was doing). But they are also the two words which spring to mind when I think about The Master.

It's hard to know what to think of this film. I squeamed and shuffled uneasily in my seat, but I was also absolutely entrenched in the troublesome lives of Freddie Quill (Joaquin Phoenix) and Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). I felt as if I was reading one of those novels where you know something shocking is coming but you are so invested that you can't stop turning the page.

The Master follows the life of Freddie Quill (Joaquin Phoenix) as he returns home from the War in the Pacific. At first you think Freddie is your typical WWII veteran who has issues and can't adapt to post-war life. Soon though you realise that Freddie was probably just as screwed up entering the war as he is after. And so it begs the question, what support was there available for a man such as Freddie (other than pills)?

After a drunk tirade in what seems to be the-middle-of-nowhere Freddie runs away and eventually hops onto a boat. The boat is captained by Lancaster Dodd  and we begin to follow the unlikely friendship of Freddie and Dodd. Dodd takes a fancy to Freddie, likely because Freddie is a drunk, unstable and gullible man. Freddie soon becomes a willing test subject for Dodd’s psychological studies and this is when you realise that Dodd is inspired by L Ron Hubbard and Scientology. The charismatic and smooth talking Dodd has also created his own cult and is going about gaining converts and financial backers. Yet by the end of all the twists and turns we are left wondering who is more screwed up, the drunkard and homeless Freddie or the educated and soon to be wealthy cult leader?

The start of the film sets the tone - it's bizarre. We all know from war films of the last century that soldiers act lewdly due to what they’ve experienced (Freddie reminds me in some ways of Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) in Taxi Driver). If Freddie's not fornicating with a sand castle in the shape of a naked woman, he’s found responding to ink blot tests with "pussy" and"cock" remarks – and believe it or not it only gets more in-your-face from there.

Phoenix is truly incredible as Freddie, and like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler I wonder if Phoenix’s time in the wilderness resonates with him playing this character. Phoenix is convincing and not for one moment did I think Freddie's extreme behaviour was out of character. There's something to love in Freddie beneath all the crap and it keeps us watching. I don't know about you, but I kept wanting and willing him to clean himself up and leave Dodd. And the ending is really left open and wonderfully done. It's truly fitting.

The relationship between Phoenix and Hoffman is incredible - I can understand why they're both pulling in award nominations. They are brilliant actors who want to play life's weirder cases. They also aren't afraid of looking ugly! Hoffman's ability to consume himself with Dodd and The Cause blew me away and I couldn't work out what Hoffman's Dodd truly believed. Was Dodd obsessed with Freddie? Was it all about Dodd getting something purely selfish out of Freddie? Did Dodd drink his own cool-aid? Did Dodd separate himself from The Cause?

DODD: If we are not helping him, then it is we who are failing him.

What is there not to love about Hoffman? Even his physique improves his roles! But it is the way in which he's able to snap which does it in this film. How many actors can whisper and hum like a cat and then a split second later snap and yell like a mad man? Usually audiences don't buy it, they see the acting in it. Does he put a foot wrong all movie? I'd have a hard time pointing it out. He's the kind of actor that makes a director look good.

Paul Thomas Anderson directs and writes this much anticipated movie. He said he was heavily influenced by a documentary produced in 1947, Let There Be Light... that I didn't know! I thought this was Scientology through and through, and while everyone involved in the film was denying  Scientology's hand in it at first, Anderson did come around to admit that Hubbard's Scientology influenced the film. I reckon Anderson denied it because he didn't want people thinking it was a Scientology 101 film, and I walked away thinking more about the relationship between Freddie and Dodd than Scientology. There's so little action and so much dialogue in Anderson's script and yet my eyes are always glued to the screen. The camera angles! Did you notice how we are always looking up at Dodd like Freddie would have?

The movie left me wondering about cults and how they are formed. For example, the scene with John More made me think about brainwashing and delusion.

Dodd: Man is not an animal. We are not a part of the ANIMAL kingdom.

It’s a truly fascinating state of mind and outlook. The whole cult and philosophy really played on my mind and I was waiting the whole movie for Dodd to fall from grace! When his son says, He's making all this up as he goes along... you don't see that? I was expecting everything to come crashing down... but it doesn't!

Amy Adams and the whole female cast does nothing to bring about normalcy to the story. They are just as abnormal, just as warped and just as bizarre. Adams once again hands in a stellar performance as Dodd’s wife. In many ways I think she has the whole ‘deranged and yet pitiful housewife’ role down pat. Her ability to do dramas has me comparing her to Kate Winslett and Kate Blanchett, pretty good company!

I like the time period in which it takes place... post-war America was very conservative and all about hard work and the nuclear family. This movie both encapsulates the conservative nuclear family and yet flips it up on its head. It calls into question the welfare state and the assistance the troubled receive. Individual drive and motive also presents itself and I'm left wondering what kind of thoughts there are out there.

This is an uncomfortable movie, yet I'm willing to say I enjoyed it thoroughly and actually would like to see it again.

10/10.