By Peter Maddern
There have been many stories about the leaders of cults, usually focusing on the very big and the very bad. The Master focuses on ‘the Cause’ of a small time operator, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who espouses in words and through ’processing’ that one’s ills of today can be resolved by connecting with the events of the past that have created them. Connections to L Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology will spring to mind though the producers deny there is a connection.
Freddy Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a sex addict, drunk and post-traumatic stress sufferer from World War II gets taken in by Dodd after he stows away on the boat that is hosting Dodd’s daughter’s wedding. Through alcohol, they strike up a friendship and Quell becomes the cause celebre for Dodd’s teachings.
The Master then becomes an intriguing battle of wits between Dodd’s believers and those who are not so certain of the Cause and the revelations of the not so pure aspects of Dodd’s personality.
Hoffman and Phoenix are both excellent with Phoenix’s Quell a study of a broken man, hollowed out spiritually, who lives with only a partial grasp of reality. The women roles are filled by the most respectful, even naïve characters, with Amy Adams as Peggy Dodd a classic example of the faithful wife and partner of the 1950s who ultimately rules while turning, in public at least, a blind eye to her husband’s failings.
While technical qualities of this Paul Thomas Anderson production (he wrote, directed and co-produces) are outstanding and the two male leads deliver what may be Oscar nomination worthy efforts, at the end the film fails to gel or grab its audience – the synergy between the men never gets past sharing an alcoholic cocktail laced with paint thinner, which for all the intricate study of the humans involved is prone to disappoint.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
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