Some
people go to a movie to sit back, relax and be entertained. Others
don’t mind a drama as long as it has 3 acts and can be followed easily
enough. There are people who like to get involved, caught up, with a
film while there is another group that really like to go to movies that
present a puzzle that in all probability will never be solved and in the
long run doesn’t make much sense---most of the last category are called
“Critics”. “The Master”, opened up in a limited release, with very
strong, positive reviews and awards for the leading actors at the
 Toronto International Film Festival plus word of mouth raves. This
review will be a minority review in that I haven’t the slightest idea
what the screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson, who also directed, was
trying to get across and except for this writing willcompletely have
forgotten the film and wonder where all the award nominations, and
possible wins, come from.

Mr.
Anderson had made 6 major films of which I liked “Magnolia” and “Boogie
Nights” plus really admiring his “There Will Be Blood”. As a writer
here he seems not to have known where he wanted to go with his main
story with characters played by Joaquin Phoenix as Freddie Quell and
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd. There is a father and son
aspect, though Lancaster isn’t shown having a relationship with his son
Val, played by Jesse Plemons. At times it seems to be a guru-follower
theme while, maybe not even intended, there are homoerotic moments.

Hoffman
gives a strong quiet performance while Phoenix’s is a much more
physical one. His hiatus from acting, to become a rap star, seems to
have taken away some of his power as an actor. In the last part of the
movie if you close your ears you would swear you hearing Marlon Brando
doing a takeoff of Marlon Brando. The only strong female role is played
by Amy Adams as Hoffman’s pregnant wife and, there is what really would
be called a cameo, by Laura Dern as one of Dodd’s benefactors..

Should
I think about the film at all it will be trying to figure what, and
why, 2 scenes in the film are all about. and the original music
soundtrack, which is one of the most annoying I have ever heard and the
4-5 original songs of the 50s era, which the film takes place in, are a
welcome sound. Regarding the 2 scenes--and these are not spoilers--one
is a social get together where all the women are nude and most of the
men in suits and the second where Freddie walks back and forth between a
paneled wall and a window across the room, which I can only assume to
show Dodd’s charisma and influence as a leader.

This
is an over extended film at 2 hours and 15 minutes and the only reason
to see it is to try and figure out why the critics are raving about it.