Phantom Thread

I definitely don't recommend this movie if you're a dumb person (you know who you are). Just trust me on this, if you're dumb (again, no judgement), you're not going to enjoy this movie. You will simply walk away using words like "boring", "pretentious" or "postmodern trash" (assuming those words exist within your vocabulary). For you, this will just be uppity spoiled rich people interacting for two hours in an ostensibly juvenile relationship, and it will not fulfill your need for a neatly told hero's journey that reinforces your pre-existing notions about your identity. Like PTA's other recent films, it's basically just a power struggle between two psychopaths, who themselves are embodiments of abstract forces. If you still struggle between understanding the difference between literal and figurative interpretation of art, probably steer clear.

Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is more in the vein of There Will Be Blood than Magnolia or Boogie Nights, meaning it's tighly focused on a very small, richly-developed cast rather than a glut of competing, interwoven storylines. Really, there are only three characters who matter: an intense, controlling dress-maker (Daniel Day-Lewis), his steady, all-business sister (Lesley Manville) and his young, headstrong new muse (Vicky Krieps). Their relationship is complicated, a careful balance of tics, emotions and triggers that frequently threatens to collapse, but somehow manages to remain upright. They badger and provoke each other, testing for weakness between fleeting moments of warmth and compassion, and this flood of dense, competing emotion fuels their creative output. Like many of Anderson's other films, Phantom Thread is quite slow, lazily coasting through snippets and snapshots of the trio's various liaisons - sibling, professional and romantic - and doesn't always settle on a firm message or meaning. We're merely documenting a small tangle of lives, complete with unsightly quirks and personality-driven hardships, as they learn to coexist and endure/accept one another's shortcomings. It's a film I enjoyed more upon reflection, thinking over the various layers of subtext and character motivation, than I did while I was watching it.

I enjoyed the individual characters' performances in this movie (and that's what saved it for me). However, the love story itself was very slow and actually quite strange.

This movie feels more like a play than a film; Pinter-like with lots of ominous undertones i.e., fashion designer Reynolds being told by sister Cyril not to pick a fight with her because she will annihilate him !! The story gradually looses its way and by the time we get to the final denouement with its twist on “the-way-a-man’s-heart-is-through-his-stomach” you get the feeling that director Anderson has been playing a bit of a practical joke on us. Let’s hope Alma’s cooking tips don’t catch on with any disenchanted housewives in the audience !

I was initially engaged and hopeful that this was going to be a good film, especially because Daniel Day Lewis was featured and the sets, landscapes and costumes were magnificent. But the film just loses tempo and breaks down due to its uninspired meandering and an utterly bizarre left turn 3/4 of the way in, which essentially yanked the film out of the genre it was in and placed it, unbelievably, in **** if the writers just ran out of ideas as to how to conclude and just grasped at something as the clock was ticking towards a deadline.