Magnolia

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: January 7, 2000

DVD Release Date: August 29, 2000

Plot 411: A small snippet of the lives of several people who experience love, loss, death, regret, loneliness and a number of other human emotions.

Review: This was a tough one to sit through. It's over three hours long and is basically a collage of people's lives. You have to watch till the end to even figure out what the hell is going on or where the movie is going. I'll sum it up for you: The movie is preaching forgiveness. This movie has an all-star cast of great actors, including Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alfred Molina. Cruise's character is especially interesting in an obnoxious, chauvinist way. He's as over-the-top as he was in Tropic Thunder. It is difficult for me to reconcile this image of him with the Scientologist version of himself. Very difficult indeed. I can't say that'd I'd recommend this one to most people. It'd probably fit well with the arthouse crowd, film students and maybe the indie flick watchers. The mainstream moviegoer will probably find it too slow going. There is a tremendous amount of character development, although it's splotchy with all the vignettes. It's one that focuses on the people and dialogue, and I think it really stretches the emotive capacities of the actors. There are a lot of close-up shots where they really need to show emotion on their faces and in their eyes.

Watch It: If you're one of the groups I've mentioned above.

Skip It: If you think you could fit two blockbusters into the same timeframe.

Trailer: