The Master: A Movie in Search of a Plot

 

by Pa Rock

Film Fan

Last night I settled down to watch a movie that boasted such a superlative cast that I knew the film itself would have to be great.  It turns out that I was half right.  The cast was exceptional.

"The Master," a 2012 effort that was both written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, has received its fair share of high praise and good reviews, and it contains more than a few memorable scenes, but the overall effect of the film is one of a lingering strangeness that never seems to quite coalesce into a captivating or even discernible plot.

The story is about a young Navy veteran from World War II named Freddie who is suffering from battle fatigue (PTSD) and and acts out through drinking, fighting, and sex.  Freddie can't maintain a job or a relationship, and one night after having spent the day on the run from an angry group of field hands, he stumbles onto a private yacht where a wedding is being held and he falls asleep, unnoticed, below deck.  Freddie awakes the next morning and discovers that the yacht is traveling on the ocean.

Freddy has entered the strange world of Lancaster Dodd, a prophet of sorts who is referred to as "The Master."   Dodd speaks of past lives and helps his cult followers delve into heir own past lives through a mishmash of hypnosis and suggestion.  Freddie and Dodd develop an odd, symbiotic relationship, one that makes Dodd's family - his actual relatives - nervous and distrusting.

That basically is the plot of the entire movie.  The yacht wedding party travels from California to New York - through the Panama Canal - and The Master leads his followers from New York City, to Philadelphia, to Phoenix, and finally on to London where he opens a school.  

But what the movie lacks in storyline and plot, it certainly makes up for in acting.  The cast is nothing short of amazing.  Joaquin Phoenix is the war-ravaged veteran, Freddie Quell, and most of the film is pulled along on the strength of his massive acting talent.  Phoenix's Freddie is passionate, exuberant, and dangerous.  There is one scene in a jail cell where Freddie destroys a toilet (and tries to destroy himself as well) that is astonishing.  Philip Seymour Hoffman, as Lancaster Dodd, watches from an adjoining cell in silence and what appears to be true bewilderment.

Amy Adams plays Dodd's wife and presents as both a loyal and defensive partner as well as shrewd protector of the family business.  Rami Malek, as one of Dodd's sons, was clipped and precise, and stood in stark contrast to the explosive Freddie.    Another standout was screen favorite Laura Dern whose role was minor but served to provoke  one of The Master's few verbal explosions.

The cast was exceptional, but the lack of a substantive and believable plot left all of their efforts flapping in the breeze.

"The Master."   Been there, done that, didn't buy the tee shirt,  and won't be going back.