The Master (2012)

I had high hopes for The Master not only because I really enjoyed director Paul Thomas Anderson's previous films Boogie Nights & Magnolia but also due to the film's top notch cast. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of the greatest actors working in the late 90s & early 2000s while The Master also marked the big screen return of actor Joaquin Phoenix. To top things off the always outstanding Amy Adams portrays the master's devoted wife Peggy. In addition to all this The Master promised to offer an exploration into the world of Scientology & its “master” L. Ron Hubbard. Unfortunately the film I expected & the one I saw had little in common.

The Master is a tedious, verbose, meandering, & ultimately unsatisfying film. One of its major flaws is Freddie Quell, the lead character. As portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, Freddie is a drunken WWII vet. He is also psychologically unstable, violent, & lost. Not only is this protagonist unsympathetic but Phoenix delivers much of his dialogue by either mumbling or slurring his words in such a way that much of what he says is almost inaudible. Subtitles might have been helpful. Freddie is an angry, crude, & aimless soul. After the war he struggles to find a place for himself & ends up wandering from place to place & job to job. Throughout all of this his only companion is the noxious homemade liquor that he routinely concocts in order to ease his pain & help him cope with the demands of daily life.

As always throughout his all too short career Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers a noteworthy performance in The Master. His character Lancaster Dodd, is the so called master of a new religion. Unfortunately the film fails to go into much detail in regards to actually explaining Dodd's self styled creed. Apparently his teachings are based on assumptions pertaining to the notion that human beings aren't animals & have existed for trillions of years. Reincarnation & past life regression also play major roles in Dodd's bizarre new religion. Stress is placed on cult like behavior such as conformity, repetition, dulling of emotions, & blind allegiance to “The Cause”.

The Master might have been better served if the movie had been told from the point of view of Dodd's latest wife Peggy (Adams). The choice of Freddie as the protagonist is fraught with problems. Chief among them is the nature of Dodd & Freddie's relationship. Their close bond is not only puzzling but it strains common sense. Is it a father/son dynamic, does Freddie serve merely as a personal challenge for the up & coming religious leader, perhaps Dodd sees in Freddie a reflection of himself in earlier days, are the 2 men simply kindred spirits, or could their friendship be based on homosexual attraction? The Master provides no answers.

Despite my overall disappointment in the movie there is one scene in The Master that stands out as being extraordinary. At one point in the narrative both Dodd & Freddie are arrested & put in jail. To be more precise, Dodd is “taken” to jail while Freddie is literally thrown into a cell. The 2 men are depicted in cells next to one another & it is here that their differences couldn't be more glaring. Dodd is representative of the modern man; ruled by intellect & reason. His demeanor is calm & controlled. He appears almost unruffled as he stands in his cell. Freddie, on the other hand, is a study in raw emotion. He's like a wild animal, relentlessly kicking, screaming, & resisting authority every step of the way. In the course of the struggle with cops Freddie's shirt is nearly ripped off & his hands are cuffed behind his back. Once he's deposited into his cell Freddie lauches into what could best be described as a major temper tantrum. He uses his body to physically express the anger raging inside him. He thrashes around violently & does as much damage to his cell & his own body as possible. He's the very portrait of primal man; one who moves through life at the mercy of his fears & primal emotions.

After Dodd & Freddie have engaged in some verbal sparring the scene ends with another stunning example of the contrast between these 2 very different characters. Dodd appears relaxed as he relieves himself in the cell's toilet. Freddie finally collapses onto the lower bunk. He is depicted lying in an awkward & uncomfortable looking position with his hands still pinned behind his back. Dodd's use of the facilities illustrates the futility of Freddie's temper because while thrashing around in his cell Freddie demolishes his own toilet. His aggressive actions have backfired. Because of the destruction of the toilet Freddie must now relieve himself in an unsanitary fashion, like an animal. The toilet can be seen as a symbol (or tool) of civilized society & by destroying it Freddie has demonstrated that he operates on a more base & impulse driven level giving no forethought to his actions or their consequences.

With a running time of over 2 hours The Master also suffers from being too long. Although the narrative strains to be relevant & thought provoking it fails on both counts. The Master is a missed opportunity for filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. As opposed to shedding light on movements like Scientology & examining the notion of blind faith & obedience to a charismatic leader/master filmgoers are instead left feeling bored, confused, & just wanting it to be over. 

Originally published on Helium