Film #66 - The Master

If you’ve heard of The Master at all by this point, you’ve probably heard the word ‘Oscar’ somewhere in the same sentence. And for very good reason. However, before you lock it in for every award in the office sweep, I’d remain a bit sceptical about its chances in all but a few category.

A bit like Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life last year, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is a bit of a challenge to the standard Hollywood feature. More of an exploration of a situation than an actual story it comes across as series of impressions, any of which might be valuable on their own but could be removed from the film without an audience member feeling the lacuna.

It feels to me that there’s been growing mainstream interest in these almost-European kinds of films over the last few years. Along with the rather undeserving The Artist’s Oscar sweep (despite being European, The Artist has a Golden Age Hollywood storyline) last year, it signals perhaps a growing frustration with the number of adaptations, remakes and sequels flooding the market at the moment.

Although of note in a changing Hollywood landscape, is the situation The Master is specifically interested in, which would have been unthinkable in a mainstream Hollywood movie even as recently as five years ago.

A rare moment of employment for Quell.
What happens next moment though...

As you’ll know by now, The Master is a somewhat loose allegory for the early days of Scientology as it follows two intensely charismatic men through the founding of a new religion in America. Anyone looking for a blow by blow history of Scientology here will be sorely disappointed but Anderson does cover of lot of thematic waterfront in The Master and not always in the unsympathetic manner you might expect.

To the extent we have a story at all, we follow Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) a volatile, intermittently violent young man whose trauma may stem from his experiences during the Second World War, or who may have been profoundly damaged well before then. Living a shiftless existence in the aftermath of the War, Quell’s life takes a dramatic turn when he wakes up to find himself on a boat belonging to Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a captivating presence who holds audiences in the palm of his hand and who his close confidantes refer exclusively to as The Master.

Doesn't look like he'd hurt a Xenu, does he?

Dodd inexplicably takes a shine to Quell, despite the latter’s obvious flaws and begins to introduce him to a system he either knows completely or is making up on the spot depending on what scene you’re watching that he calls The Cause. By the time they return to American waters, Quell is acting (and acting out) as Dodd’s right hand man as the followers of The Cause try to introduce their system to the rest of America and, later, the world.

The film’s narrative skips about a lot, pulling back to let time pass and the word of The Cause grow only to zoom back in at almost random moments to examine some new aspect of the dynamic between the two men and the growing popularity of Dodd and the friction Quell causes between him and his followers, particularly wife Peggy (Amy Adams).

Spoiler alert: the quasi-psychopathic Quell doesn't
always have the smoothest journey

It’s an oneiric sensation watching The Master. It occasionally threatens to solidify on a point only to then reaffirm that things are never that easy and show the opposite the very next moment. In one scene Quell is tearfully embracing the teachings of The Cause and finding himself transformed by it; in the next he may be destroying a prison cell in an extended fit of rage. Dodd veers from being a charismatic leader whose savoir faire commands the respect of all he comes across, to a frustrated writer whose barely contained anger could explode at any moment. There are no answers to be had here, just delicate balances, and though that bucks Hollywood’s insistence for resolution the wide open spaces of the film allow a measure of sympathy for all concerned.

I would definitely let Amy Adams fight my battles for me.

More than anything though, The Master is a master class (pun intended) on acting. Joaquin Phoenix will deservedly get the lion’s share of the praise here as the tortured Quell but Hoffman is also at the top of his game, making Dodd an engrossing figure even as we’ve been encouraged to disdain the man he is a fictional counterpart of.

Even Amy Adams, who I didn’t find as strong as some other reviewers brings a nice balance to the two as a woman who believes in Dodd even more than the Master himself. It wouldn’t surprise me if any or all of these didn’t pick up The Master’s few Oscars next year.

The Master is an occasionally challenging, if ultimately worthwhile film, but I recommend you go in with a clear mind and a wealth of patience.