THE MASTER (R) If There Will Be Blood was director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson’s grand satanic creation myth examining the tyranny of savage American capitalism and evangelical Christianity, then The Master is about the power dynamics between two men in a fiercely intimate and volatile mentor/protégé relationship. Nevertheless, it shares with There Will Be Blood the fascination with how religion can be used as a controlling force on an impressionable mind.
In the earlier movie, the attempt to bring oil baron Daniel Plainview to Jesus was ultimately futile. The messenger was a false prophet, and Plainview’s diabolical animalism was impenetrable to divine pretension. In The Master, the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is the focus of this strangely magnetic character study. Religion aggressively comes into play here, but it only serves as a framework for Anderson to delve deeper into the relationship between an alcoholic World War II vet, Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), and a charismatic mystic/huckster named Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Quell is all twitchy, oversexed, manic recklessness. He’s wound up so tight you expect Phoenix’s knotty muscles to snap and unravel at any moment. But for all of Dodd’s intelligence and his ability to expound on man’s cosmic condition, he impulsively takes the troubled Quell under his wing, even when his protective wife Peggy (Amy Adams) staunchly questions Quell’s commitment. As Dodd’s lifework, a Scientology-like movement called The Cause, grows in popularity, Quell earnestly tries to adapt to his higher calling. Quell feels unmoored, however, in his new life and resists Dodd’s spiritual demands, visualized with metaphorical precision in a jailhouse scene. Who’s the real master? That’s left in doubt.
Although the movie stylistically and thematically feels like a direct follow-up to There Will Be Blood, the epic approach to The Master is an illusion. It’s really a romance. Underneath its stately ambition and hypnotic, musically rhythmic editing and score, The Master is a meticulously focused tale of two men, two opposites, colliding and feeling the rush of deep attraction. A new creative spark is unleashed in Dodd due to his friendship with Quell, and the latter is offered the possibility of new change. Those going into this expecting a brutal dissection of Scientology will probably walk away disappointed. Make no mistake, Dodd is seen as a charlatan, but Hoffman’s performance is thoroughly sympathetic. As for Quell, Phoenix exudes a tragic vulnerability that is all-too recognizably human. This is masterful filmmaking.
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