A nearly perfect marriage of style and substance, Phantom Thread is the timeless romantic drama we've been waiting for this year. Paul Thomas Anderson's latest flick, as ever, bewilders as it entrances, and while his idiosyncratic style is no easier to chew here, this film stands out as distinctly un-categorizable and anti-timely in a year so aggressively filled with films about contemporary social issues. Whether that's a good or bad thing is a debate for another forum, but it's worth pointing out that this movie has no explicit agenda for any kind of political or social reflection whatsoever.
In fact, if anything, it's a sort of love letter to classic Hollywood glamour. It's bursting at the seams with color and light, emotions bigger than the screen that are locked away behind stony facades of the British elite. It's the kind of movie you expect Lauren Bacall or Tallulah Bankhead to casually stroll through. In fact, it references several classic films like Rebecca, to say nothing of the premise, which is essentially a sort of My Fair Lady story. A confirmed old bachelor in London, an expert in his artistic field, snatches up a beautiful and poor young woman for his possibly perverse schemes. He trains her, uses her, attempts to cast her aside, and then grows accustomed to her face.
There is a curious alternate side to this tale, though, and the film splits its attention between Daniel Day-Lewis as the dressmaker Woodcock and his muse-turned-lover Alma, played by Vicky Krieps. Alma, so head over heels in love with this old man, becomes desperate to be the one and only woman in his life (as he so often dresses rich and beautiful women who apparently threaten her) that she poisons him twice in order to emasculate him and subsequently nurse him back to health. Whether the film espouses a feminist perspective of agency in a world run by men or a misogynist view of women as jealous and wicked will be the dominant discussion of this film in years to come.
Similarly, I left the theater feeling melancholic and deeply disturbed. What I thought would be a weird but wonderful old-school romance was almost anything but. The film -- running over two hours in length -- becomes a nightmarish meditation on obsessive genius and work, domestic duplicity, and ultimately the inherent horror of loving someone. Specifically in a heterosexual relationship. The most enjoyable -- and most difficult -- performance in the film comes from Lesley Manville (who has been deservedly nominated for an Oscar), playing Woodcock's sister and business partner, whose icy facade masks immeasurable depths of scheming.
What won't be so hotly debated is the music of this film. Jonny Greenwood (The Master, We Need to Talk About Kevin, There Will Be Blood, and of course his work with Radiohead) hits the score out of the park with amazing piano and symphonic tunes I could listen to on repeat all day. And while the film may not be the most accessible film on the market lately -- who ever really knows what Paul Thomas Anderson is thinking? -- and while literally none of the characters are sympathetic, Phantom Thread is one of the most subversive, darkly comedic, and sweepingly beautiful movies of the year. There's something to be said for an artist who refuses to give in to popular whims, resolving to stay true to his vision, no matter what the final product becomes.
IMDb: Phantom Thread
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