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Phantom Thread (2017)

Rate: 7
Viewed: 2/22

PhTh
2/22: I was going to give Phantom Thread a '9', but the last fifteen minutes is awful.

It seems like the director just gave up. At the beginning, I was under the impression the setting was present day, but it turns out to be the 50's. Uh...right. Nobody talked like that back then, especially with the heavy profanity. Yet the screenplay isn't bad for the most part. The timing is fair, too, because the dresses are clearly overdone.

Six Oscar nominations were handed out for Phantom Thread, and I correctly guessed it won one for Best Costume Design. Of course, how can they not when the movie is about dressmaking? The cinematography is sumptuous, and the camera work is smooth and calm. However, the interview technique has been ripped off from Bob Fosse's films.

Here's the chief problem: this one is too exacting although not overwhelming. In fact, if the movie was instead directed by Stanley Kubrick, I would've suffocated. The other is the small unfilled gaps that occur between scenes. They keep jumping ahead with the biggest leap in the last fifteen minutes. What happened to the wedding dress that's supposed to be sent out to Belgium?

Daniel Day-Lewis announced his retirement from acting by making Phantom Thread the final film of his career. True to his craft, he spent one year delving into haute couture dressmaking. Already good in his own way, Daniel Day-Lewis has been surprisingly outacted by two females. In a way, the film is like The Age of Innocence, but this time, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder are replaced by Vicky Krieps and Lesley Manville. I thought at first Vicky might be out of his league, but she did get better, eventually overshadowing him.

As for the nearly absent plot, it's about a sadomasochistic relationship which was mostly brought on by Alma but in a subtle way. The main question to ask is: why does she keep putting up with Reynolds? The longer Alma stays with him, the more clear the answer is: she actually enjoys it. Anytime Alma is losing Reynolds' favor, she cooks poisonous mushrooms to make him sick and helpless; then, he's 100% vulnerable, as exactly how she wants him to be, and then after getting better, tells Alma he can't exist without her. The pattern starts to set in. Eventually, Reynolds must have figured it out and ultimately enjoys what's going on. Or is the ending just a dream?

All in all, Phantom Thread is a good movie, but the last fifteen minutes is what did it in.