Feeling unresolved

Magnolia

I watched this film with my housemates last night. I was expecting good things, because I had heard good things about it. In the end, whilst I had been entertained I was also feeling a little disappointed.

The film follows several different plot-lines at once, as the lives of the half-dozen or so main characters are intertwined and interconnected. It's well done, one has to admit (some of the interconnections are so subtle you have a job to catch them all), but the importance of coincidence is so highly stressed at the film's opening you expect a bigger and more impressive climax. The film has a couple of surreal moments, which raise a smile and help to aleviate the seriousness of the characters' situations. Strong performances are given by most of the cast (in particular Tom Cruise, whom I continue to have a lot of respect for as an actor) and the dialogue is generally believable and thoughtful.

It suffers from being slightly overlong, and from several of the storylines not being resolved to any satisfaction. They just stop, and you wonder what the three-hours of build-up was all in aid of. The only resolution I liked was that of the shy cop, and only because his part in the denouement wrapped up his story quite nicely and made the film end on a good note.