The Master (2012)

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master has been on my to watch list for a fair few years now, so when, yesterday morning, I was seized by the yen for some proper, grown-up drama, it felt like a natural choice. Anderson has always been a director I've admired rather than enjoyed, but if anything was going to change my mind it'd have to be a character study of a very thinly-veiled L. Ron Hubbard, wouldn't it?

Hubbard, or, err, Lancaster Dodd, is a charismatic leader of what is known, enigmatically, as "The cause" - something about the root of our troubles in this life being injuries we may have sustained in previous ones. We view him through the eyes of one Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a drifter who was perhaps damaged by his time serving in the navy during WW2, or who was perhaps damaged all along. Quell first encounters Dodd whilst on the run from an angry mob, but his borderline-poisonous hooch proves to be exactly what the slightly mystical Dodd requires. The pair form an alliance, of sorts, and it is this that forms the meat and bones of the film.

Confession: I could never truly engage with Boogie Nights or There Will be Blood, and I wasn't able to really get my head around The Master either. Anderson tends to deal in the sort of damaged male characters whose internal logic is a million miles from my own, and his films always leave me feeling vaguely baffled about what, if anything, might just have happened. Quell in particular is an erratic individual who seems to have no real sense of self, and as such, he makes for a tricksy narrator, although technically not an unreliable one.

I don't say this to put anybody off - there's a lot to recommend about this one, after all. It looks fantastic, with the lighting and composition lending a sort of nostalgic glamour to every single shot. There are great performances to enjoy, too, with Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman (as Dodd) both excellent. I also thoroughly enjoyed Amy Adams as Dodd's wife - once again, she excels in a film aimed at an adult audience, tempering her fundamental sweetness with something altogether more sinister.

By the time The Master was over, I was aware I'd seen something very good indeed. I just wish I was able to say with any certainty what it was.