Runtime: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Quick Impressions:
What unusually fantastic Oscar nominees we got this year! After taking a two year break from reviews when my son was born, I would have been glad to come back to anything. But anybody should be glad for a year like this! Such a wide variety of excellent films, and for once, they’re all represented appropriately in the nominations. It’s like a quiet miracle.
Anyway, Phantom Thread‘s surprising number of nods made me giddy with joy for a horrible and selfish reason. As an average person not in the film industry who doesn’t live on either coast and has a two year old, I find it pretty tricky to see all the nominated films and performances in time to write them up before the ceremony. I have to make a lot of calculated guesses and plan very carefully.
So imagine how overjoyed I was when the two movies still out at the theater that I planned to see next–Phantom Thread and Darkest Hour–really were the only movies left I needed to see.
I was so nervous that I’d miscalculated. What if they did nominate Hong Chao from Downsizing (out of theaters and not available for purchase until after the Oscars)? All my planning, all my careful planning…
But not only did the nomination go to someone else, it went to someone in a movie I already had to see for Daniel Day-Lewis, anyway! (Isn’t that disgusting? I feel terribly guilty about all this. No one who writes a movie review blog should admit to such a self-serving reason for rooting against what is no doubt a lovely performance. I promise I will see you, Hong Chau, when I can.)
Meanwhile, as it turns out, Lesley Manville’s nominated supporting performance is not merely convenient (for me) but amazing. (I’d like to call it “revelatory” because that makes it sound really impressive, but using that word would be dishonest because Lesley Manville’s talent is no revelation to me. I already knew she was a great actress. I loved her as Mary in Mike Leigh’s Another Year.) To be honest, as Cyril Woodcock, Manville may be giving my favorite performance by a Supporting Actress this year. I haven’t made a firm decision there yet. I really did love Octavia Spencer an awful lot. I think Allison Janney is going to win, and Laurie Metcalf deserves to win.
But that discussion belongs in my write up of Best Supporting Actress coming soon.
As for Phantom Thread, I should begin by saying that Paul Thomas Anderson does not have a great track record with me. Some people whose opinions I deeply respect love his work, but usually I just don’t get it. I was surprised a few years ago to feel a strong connection with and appreciation for The Master, but then everybody was like, “Oh this is the one that’s not very good,” leaving me baffled as usual.
My husband is not a big fan of Anderson, either, despite the fact that he’s very fond of going around saying, “I drink your milkshake. I drink it up!” (It’s nothing personal. We love Maya Rudolph!)
Also (get ready to cringe) I’m not always the biggest fan of Daniel Day-Lewis. This is not a popular opinion, I know, but I just don’t understand why actors seem to consider him so much better than all other actors. The mass adulation for Streep I totally get because she has some weird quality that sets her apart, but what makes Day-Lewis greater than, say, Denzel Washington? Some might say Washington is better. Some might say he’s better this year. If you give me enough rope, I might even say it.
I should be careful to qualify, though, that I don’t dislike Day-Lewis or his work. He seems like a modest, unassuming man and a very talented actor. I just don’t think he’s the greatest actor in the whole entire universe whose every errant breath merits an Oscar nomination.
And now that I’ve said all that, I’m going to tell you that (with some consideration) I loved Phantom Thread, and I think Daniel Day-Lewis gives a winning and worthy performance in it as the mercurial, genius 1950s fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock.
The Good:
The trailer for this movie does not do it justice. Based on the trailer alone, my husband had zero desire to see this film. Our original plan was to see Darkest Hour on date night and let me watch Phantom Thread on my own over the weekend. But then our nine-year-old begged to see Darkest Hour, and Phantom Thread got nominated in so many categories that my husband decided he ought to see it, too. So we revised our plans.
But one thing that oh so painfully uninviting trailer does do well is keep secret the entire plot of the movie (much as a designer might sew a secret into the lining of a coat). Most of what we see in the trailer happens in the first few minutes of the film, leaving the rest of the story a delicious surprise.
My initial thought as the film began was, “How does Paul Thomas Anderson do this? Each of his films immerses us so thoroughly in a distinct and vivid world. And that all changes with every film.”
Then I thought to myself, “But film and novels are different. The writer and director benefits from the wisdom of the production design team and the costumer.” And I realized that the film most definitely deserves every Oscar nomination that it got. Mark Bridges, the nominated costume designer must have had his work cut out for him. Costumes make a huge contribution to any film, but Phantom Thread is about a fashion designer. Surely Paul Thomas Anderson did not describe every outfit Woodcock designs in elaborate detail, but the character is supposed to be an amazing, sought after genius, so that means the film’s costume designer is contributing almost as much to the story as the writer, albeit all visually. Yes, of course the costumer deserves his nomination. In fact, I would have given the cinematographer a nod, too. All of the shots are just beautifully composed. But since Anderson himself is the director of photography, I suppose he’s already getting plenty of recognition by sneaking into Best Director.
Johnny Greenwood’s score is amazing and haunting and perfect. It literally haunted my dreams and has been running through my head ever since (although I sometimes blend it into the score of The Shape of Water which I still like just a little bit more).
My first impressions of Reynolds Woodcock were largely negative (though I liked the character and performance right away). I knew I could never be in a relationship with him (probably because under the right circumstances, I could be him). I wanted to tell him, “Look Buddy, if you don’t have time for a confrontation, then you don’t have time for me.”
Then I got somewhat indignant that any thin human could possibly eat so much for breakfast. Here is what I eat for breakfast every day, spinach and almonds wrapped in a tortilla. And I have been considering this worryingly decadent because of the tortilla. For several months I ate one scrambled egg with a side of plain spinach, but my dark secret is that I hate scrambled eggs. And why should I eat a breakfast that I hate every day, especially when for lunch I have…to wait until dinner?
As the film went on, though, I grew to understand, appreciate, and love Reynolds. Based on the trailer, I had expected him to be some sort of sinister sadist or something. But no, he’s such a sweet, fragile, damaged little person.
Probably my favorite thing about the entire film is the nickname Reynolds uses for his sister Cyril.
After the movie, I was gushing about this detail to my husband, only to learn to my astonishment that he hadn’t noticed a nickname! (But he is hard of hearing). I then drew an embarrassing blank for five minutes trying to recall exactly what the nickname was.
When I finally remembered it, “Old so-and-so,” I realized, feeling even more stupid, “Oh my gosh! It’s a pun!” I liked the nickname even before I realized how clever it was. I liked it simply because it felt so natural and so true.
I suppose that must be what all the other actors so admire in Daniel Day-Lewis, the way he so quietly and so authentically delivered that nickname, “Old so-and-so.”
The other thing I could not stop thinking throughout Phantom Thread was how much it reminded me of Rebecca, specifically Hitchcock’s film version starring Sir Laurence Olivier. This Rebecca vibe is so pervasive (visually, aurally, thematically) that it’s hard to believe Anderson doesn’t intend the two films to be in conversation, but I never read much about a movie until after I’ve reviewed it, so I can’t claim to know Anderson’s intentions.
“This is like Rebecca,” I thought. (In the love related scenes, even Day-Lewis’s cadence and manner suggest Sir Laurence Olivier in Rebecca.) Then I’d think, “Oh, now it’s kind of like a reverse Rebecca.” And then it took a rather different direction than I expected (to put it mildly), and I began to think perhaps it had more in common with a film from the early 2000s, one that also prominently features a wedding dress.
Both my husband and I found the ending of the movie jarring–shocking even!–but once we collected ourselves and looked back on it all, the whole thing seemed rather brilliant.
I have never liked a Paul Thomas Anderson movie so much.
Best Scene:
Every scene in this movie is prepared and presented to us with such care that it’s much harder to single out one that didn’t work for me than to name a champion among the numerous successful ones.
The earliest scene to impress me was Alma’s first time being measured and fitted by Reynolds. This is definitely happening on a date, so I love the interruption by Cyril. I think this scene gives us a strong visual image of the dynamic driving the first part of the film.
There’s another moment later when Cyril has sent for the doctor that echoes the uneasy tension within the grouping and shows how much things have changed.
Best Action Sequence:
The moment motivating Alma to give Reynolds the courage to demand what is his, and then their entire escapade together to recover his design from someone unworthy is a breathless and sometimes cringe-inducing sequence.
Best Scene Visually:
I love the visit from Reynolds’s mother.
More generally, I adore the way the food in this movie is lit and photographed and showcased and presented as just as gorgeous and worthy of our gaze as the designer gowns. I remember thinking, “Wow! That sausage looks absolutely scrumptious,” and I don’t even like long, weird sausages like that!
I’m sure there’s more to that, actually (the food/fashion thing, not my love/hate relationship with fetishized sausage). If I were writing an essay about this film, I’d start with the visual connection between the food and the gowns.
Best Scene Aurally:
I loved the use of sound in this movie. I’d say that eighty percent of the humor in the film derives from the audience hearing sounds as Reynolds does. It’s also a shortcut for giving us tremendous insight into his character. From a storytelling viewpoint, it’s so economical and much more effective than just telling us.
The buttering the toast scene at breakfast is so amazing, but I love the way the film continues to show us how noisy Alma is as heard by Reynolds until finally we get the loudest, most prolonged pour from a water pitcher in the entire world.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Daniel Day-Lewis:
Slowly and gradually, I fell in love with Reynolds Woodcock. Not that I would want to marry him (though I think my husband may have married someone rather like him at certain moments).
Speaking of Lesley Manville, it is actually the relationship between Reynolds and Cyril that made me fall in love with Phantom Thread. To me their dynamic feels so real, so effortlessly authentic.
At first, their relationship seems a trifle odd, as if Cyril is overbearing and intrusive. But the longer you watch, the more you realize that Cyril isn’t some terrifying presence after all. She’s just a loving sister devoted to her brother, caring for him, nurturing his genius because he has special needs, and their mother has died.
As Reynolds, Day-Lewis does a fantastic job of presenting two dramatically different sides of the same man.
I think he’s great in the surprise asparagus scene.
Most Oscar Worthy Performance, Lesley Manville:
I feel stupid for failing to realize that, of course, Lesley Manville would get nominated because all the actors made a point to watch Daniel Day-Lewis, so, of course, they saw her performance, too.
She’s just fantastic as Cyril, my favorite character in Phantom Thread.
If I had to single out one shining moment, I’d go for her interaction with Alma after the noisy breakfast.
The Negatives:
The ending of Phantom Thread is very jarring, almost disorienting, and it’s bound to put some people off the entire movie. My husband and I left the theater perplexed, shaking our heads and laughing from sheer speechlessness.
“It could have been worse,” I joked. “It could have rained frogs.”
After talking through the ending at great length on the ride home, we finally decided that it did work for us, and we did like it.
But surely not everyone will go that way.
I also faintly disliked the scene with the confetti and the elephant. I liked the idea of it, but it just seemed to drag on so long. I was ready to be done watching it long before it actually came to an end. It made the movie begin to have that quality present in most Paul Thomas Anderson films that causes me not to like them.
I’m not sure that it’s a bad scene or misstep or anything. I just personally didn’t like it.
Overall:
To my surprise I loved Phantom Thread and was especially charmed by Lesley Manville’s performance as Cyril (that old so-and-so).
I don’t believe Daniel Day-Lewis is actually retiring permanently for real. (I’m not accusing him of dishonesty in the moment. I just feel confident he’s going to change his mind after a while.) But if he truly does decide not to come out of retirement in the future, then he’s certainly going out on a high note in this beautiful film.