Starring Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, John C. Reilly, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Melora Walters, William H. Macy, Melinda Dillon, Michael Bowen, Jeremy Blackman, Emmanuel Johnson, Henry Gibson, Craig Kvinsland, Felicity Huffman. Directed by P. T. Anderson. Earl Partridge (Robards) is dying of cancer. His beautiful, much younger wife Linda (Moore) is totally hysterical, feeling guilty over her past sins and at loose ends over the course her life will soon take. His nurse Phil (Hoffman) attends to his needs, administering medicine and listening to Earl's final thoughts. Frank Mackie (Cruise), men's movement guru for the "Seduce and Destroy" method of successfully picking up women, is sick of putting on his seminars and hiding his past. Officer Jim (Reilly) is a straight arrow cop striving to make sense of his often terrifying world, and praying to God to find someone to love. He meets a young woman (Walters) on a domestic disturbance, and falls in love. Talk show host Jimmy Gator (Hall) hosts the longest running game show on television, a show for kids. His wife (Dillon) knows he has inoperable cancer, and will shortly die. He still works his show, where current whiz kid (Blackman) and reigning champion is within reach of breaking the longest winning streak in the show's history. His starry-eyed father (Bowen) is more concerned with the money his son can make, and how the son's performance affects him, than on how all this is affecting his son. Whiz kid Donnie Smith (Macy), is a former game show star whose life has gone nowhere since that one fleeting moment in the spotlight, now in love with a hunky bartender (Kvinsland) who is currently being pursued by suave barfly Thurston Howell (Gibson). In each case, bonds have been broken between loved ones, and there is only a short time to fix them. Through remarkable coincidences, random chance and strange events, these characters' lives are intertwined together, and some begin to not only heal those broken connections, but begin to heal their own lives in the process. One of the few, it seems, who was not impressed with Anderson's much praised Boogie Nights, I was nevertheless impressed by the trailer for Magnolia. The film did not disappoint. Magnolia is a brilliantly made ensemble piece, where each character, seemingly isolated from most of the others, is connected together through chance meetings, hidden family connections and fate. Like such films as Pulp Fiction and Short Cuts, several seemingly unrelated stories are told simultaneously, cutting back and forth between the stories until the relationship between the characters is made clear by the end. The film begins by outlining some cases from American history, where a chain of events, seemingly highly coincidental, all worked together to result an often unusual or unbelievable result. Is it just coincidence, just chance? Is it the hand of a higher power? Or is it just the logical culmination of actions that the characters themselves have taken? The film doesn't really answer which of these it is, but does seem to lean in favour of the last. Frank Mackie asserts to his followers to not bother dwelling on the past, just move on. But several times the phrase is uttered "You may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with you." Several of the characters, including Mackie, only begin to really move on when they make some sort of peace with their past. The performances are uniformly excellent, often surprising, and several academy award worthy. Don't laugh, but the most interesting, most intense and most moving performance is given by Tom Cruise. Consistently a solid actor, he goes way beyond and delivers a totally believable rendition of a macho, very misogynist male-power guru who profanely and humourously sends up the self-help industry. Admittedly, it's an easy target. His eventual meeting with the father who abandoned him is actually quite powerful, illustrating the conflicting he feelings he has. Moore is sensational as the hysterical, guilt-ridden trophy wife on the verge of a nervous breakdown, delivering a performance unlike any I've seen before. Reilly is quietly moving as the insecure cop often petrified by his work, and aching to find someone to love. Walters superbly captures the frantic, directionless quality of an abused, chain-coker unable to get on with her life. Robards is excellent as the gruff, mean old codger who regrets the loss of his one love and their son. Part of the reason so many actors deliver so much is because of an at times funny, shocking, and often thoughtful script. One example of a surprising direction occurs when Phil orders a copy of Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler along with the groceries. But instead of using them for his own enjoyment we find out he's picked them up to find the phone number for Frank Mackie, whose approach towards women nicely fits with these magazines. The sometimes overwhelming sadness is neatly counterbalanced by several very funny exchanges, such as between Earl and Phil, and between Officer Jim and a foul-mouthed woman he's been called to check up on. The only real quibble I have is a very unbelievable act of God smites Los Angeles near the end of the film. While interesting and quite surprising, it takes away a bit from the believability of the story. But not it's overall power and magic. Perhaps that is the point. Many unbelievable things happen in our lives, which seem unexplainable. While at just over three hours it might seem on the long side, the story continues to interest and surprise and makes Magnolia one of the high points of a very good year in film. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page