myclue

Just Finished the movie magnolia. I thought the movie was so interesting first 2 and a half hours , and kept me intrigued and looking forward to some huge climax where all the characters stories come together... but no. The ending had no meaning to me and I did not understand the frogs. The whole movie was just about things happen and not a coincidence?? What the heck...got such good ratings but how?? Ending sucked and was expecting so much

Mr Dave

Saw it in the theater and never saw so many people get up and go to the bathroom, go to get popcorn...just escape.

See, it's the kind of movie that dunks you under the water and NEVER LETS YOU BACK UP.
The first 10 minutes are amazing - entertaining, fun, interesting...


...but then it just gets depressing. Then more depressing. Then MORE depressing...
And it never lets you take a breath. Never relents.


Anderson wrote/directed that movie after some deeply depressing personal losses (not surprisingly, the death of his father) and basically had the freedom to make that movie for himself...and for no one else.

I knew his ass't at the time and it was explained to me that basically it was a deeply personal project.
I found it completely awful.
But it wasn't FOR me. It was for him. And him alone.

vader1

The movie has a bunch of veiled references to the biblical book Exodus and the plague of frogs. I liked the movie and the frogs to me were a WTF moment. I am not sure what the film maker was trying to say with the usage of Exodus and the frogs, because I did not think about the subtext at all. It was a rental, I was tired and went to bed.

Exodus it about the Jews being released from bondage in Egypt. Maybe he was saying something about the characters lives being some type of prison and they needed to be released from it. They all had their issues. If I remember right, there was a dying guy, a lonely cop, a drug addict, Cruise as some weirdo, the nurse guy who cared for the dying guy. I guess they were all kind of trapped in a life that burdened them. But it has been so long since I have seen it and don't remember the details so I can't really speculate that much. And Anderson's movies often have loneliness and isolation as a common theme.

The plague of frogs was a "let my people go or its gonna rain some frogs on your ass" kind of thing. At the end of the movie, they all get some closure or relief from their burden and it rains some frogs. You do the math. Its just symbolism.


I enjoyed it but it sort of came at a time when there was a whole string of movies with loosely related characters struggling through life and its meaning with some weak link that somehow connects them all. Sort of like the movie "Crash" if you liked that one. I enjoy these kinds of films (Babel, Grand Canyon,Short Cuts, etc) but they never really have some great climax to them. And kind of similar movies by Robert Altman of loosely related characters. The general message seems to be, life is tough. It aint fair, bad things happen to good people and crappy people sometimes get rewarded, its full of misery, deal with it. Blahbity blah.

It reminds me about talking to my dad about "No Country for Old Men." To me the movie was perfection, but my dad wanted Bardem to get arrested or end up dead in a shootout or some other typical hollywood ending. I like movies with an imperfect ending. Things left unresolved, just because it is different. If you want to see an ending to a movie that will REALLY piss you off, watch an old movie called "Birdy" with Nick Cage and Matthew Modine. When the credits role, I guarantee you, your response will be "You have GOT to be sh*tting me!"

hirev

Although there were moments of good writing and excellent actors I lost interest about 3/4 of the way through. It to me is a random series of little vinettes that are loosely connected, like an outline for the real film that was to be made or edited differently. In the end it was not entertaining to me and left me flat. I cannot recommend it.