Review of Phantom Thread (2017) by Michael G — 06 Feb 2018

There is little that I could possibly add to what has been written by many before me, but I think it is worth noting that Paul Thomas Anderson's films are not illogical or incoherent as one reviewer put it, but rather shows us a little too much truth of what makes us human beings tick. His movies will never garner a mainstream audience because there are very few human beings let alone audience members that want to see humanity for what it is. They prefer to look the other way, stick their head in the sand or go to a superhero movie that they can escape for a couple of hours the world they live in. Anderson brings the real world to the screen and at times his cinematic lens shows the perverse, delusional, and distracting nature of human beings as they circle their inner demons but never really quite find the time to address them. When Reynolds says that "He can't do confrontation right now!" near the beginning of the movie he is telling you all you need to know about Reynolds and humanity. All the dresses, all the fastidious dressing, all the meticulous details are nothing more than the daily distractions that Reynolds uses to keep from confronting his dead mother. Some people need someone to bring the demons of their past to them. In this case, Reynolds finds true love not because of love but rather because he cannot live without the woman that brings him to his darkest places and for an all too brief instant touches the vulnerability to truly love another human being. It would be nice if we human beings could do this without constant quarrelling, games, and incessant manipulation, but as Anderson all too beautifully points we are rarely capable of it. Sure Alma has a touch of the demonic about her, but it's all fun and games so long as you get the dosage right. After all....when you love someone to death, you don't really want to kill them. Well....maybe a little.

Like most good absurdist comedies there is a very relevant and dark soul to a film like this. The ultimate question is whether we as an audience member have the stomach to go where the characters are prepared to take us.