Just two days before watching this movie I was having a conversation with a friend in which it was commented on how much I tend to like Paul Thomas Anderson films, and I do though he can be something of an acquired taste. In fact 'Magnolia' the last of the directors features films I had not yet seen turned out to be the only one I didn't like.
Now I liked parts of it, the Philip Seymore Hoffman/ Jason Robards storyline, much of the performances by Tom Cruse, Julian Moore, Philip Baker Hall, John C. Riley. There are wonderfully creative prolog sequences, and late in the film one of the most WTF things I've ever seen in a movie, and I love being surprised. Also the theme of the movie is the life bending effects of child abuse, and it's hard not to get behind a film that calls that out.
However the film is overlong and heavy handed, a very late 90's flavor of the cynical come maudlin. An Atlmanesque melodrama, a 'Crash' like soap opera. Less then the sum of it's parts, the cumulative effect is a sledge hammer where a chisel is needed. William H. Macey and the all the game show stuff, didn't work for me. An overly ambitious, dated mixed bag, but at least it's interesting, risk taking, and contains some fine performances. **1/2
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