Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE MASTER

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

THE MASTER

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Joaquin Phoenix: World War II Naval Officer Freddie Quell

Philip Seymore Hoffman: Lancaster Dodd, founder of “The Cause”

Amy Adams: his wife Peggy

Ambyr Childers Dodd’s daughter Elizabeth

Rami Malek: Clark, her betrothed

Jesse Plemons: Dodd’s eldest son Val

Laura Dem: Helen Sullivan, one of Dodd’s wealthy supporters,

REVIEW

This film is clearly geared to the more discerning mature viewer, primarily because Freddie’s violent and erratic behaviour is disturbing to watch. But he is not alone: some of what others do is unsettling as well.

Some members of the audience will regard Freddie’s sexual fantasies as repulsive and nearly everyone will find the movie too long at 2 hours and 17 minutes.

However, those willing to hang in are sure to agree that Freddie’s performance has all the earmarks of Academy Award nomination. As usual Hoffman does a very credible job of it and Adams shows she really can act. However good acting alone does not make a good movie.

CLASSIFICATION

for sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.