| | | Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Behind the Scenes Footage, Documentary, Music Video, Trailers
Magnolia is a mosaic of American life woven through a series of comic and poignant vignettes. Through a collusion of coincidence, change, and human action, nine people will weave and wrap through each other's lives on a day that builds to an unforgettable climax. Some will seek forgiveness, others escape. Some will mend frayed bonds, others will be exposed.
Editor's Note
In a single day in Los Angeles, a number of interconnected lives are changed forever. A lonely police officer (John C. Reilly) falls in love with a disturbed cocaine addict (Melora Walters). Her father (Philip Baker Hall), the host of the game show "What Do Kids Know?" has terminal cancer and tries to make amends for his past mistakes. A former champion of the show (William H. Macy) struggles to find love while the current champion (Jeremy Blackman) suffocates under the pressures of being a boy genius. An elderly man (Jason Robards) lies on his deathbed, tended by nurse Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman), while his trophy wife (Julianne Moore) wrestles with grief and guilt, and his estranged son (Tom Cruise), an infomercial host, teaches workshops on how to trick women into having sex. Throughout all of this, past deeds are lamented and strange forces loom in the air.Director Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to BOOGIE NIGHTS is an extravagant, emotional epic inspired by such films as Robert Altman's NASHVILLE and SHORT CUTS, with a sprawling cast of characters searching for love and meaning in a chaotic world. The cast delivers uniformly excellent performances, most notably Tom Cruise's Oscar-nominated role as the sleazy Frank T.J. Mackey.
Plot Summary
Director Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling epic concerning a day in the life of many San Fernando Valley residents is an ambitious, highly emotional effort.
| Features | TV Spots | | Aimee Mann's "Save Me" Music Video | | Two Deleted Scenes | | "Making Of" Featurette | | Two Theatrical Trailers |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 5/10/2005 |
| Running Time: 188 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1999 | | Catalog ID: 5029 | | UPC: 00794043502927 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 2.40:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (2000) | | | Tom Cruise, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | | | Paul Thomas Anderson, Nominee, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen | |
Golden Globe (2000) |  | Tom Cruise, Winner, Best Supporting Actor | | | Aimee Mann, Nominee, Best Original Song |
| Memorable Quotes| "...And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that this is not just, 'something that happened.' This cannot be, 'one of those things.' This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can't. This was not just a matter of chance. These strange things happen all the time."----Opening narration by actor Ricky Jay, after the strange death of Sydney Barringer | | "In this life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve----it's what you take."----Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise) | | "You wanna kiss me, Jim?"----Claudia Wilson Gator (Melora Walters)|"Yes, I do."----Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) | | "Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing me again?"----Claudia to Jim | | "I know this sounds silly, and I know that I might sound ridiculous, like this is the scene in the movie where the guy's trying to get a hold of the long--lost son, you know, but this is that scene. This is that scene, and I think they have those scenes in movies because they're true, you know, because they really happen. And you've got to believe me, this is really happening."----Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on the phone looking for Frank | | "As the book says, we may be through with the past, but the past ain't though with us."----Ending narration by Ricky Jay (echoed throughtout the film) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...A major work highly in tune with the zeitgeist..." 12/13-19/1999 p.105-6Rolling Stone
Ranked #5 in Rolling Stone's "Ten Best Movies of 1999" -- "...[An] emotional powerhouse..." 01/20/2000 p.63-4 Entertainment Weekly
"...A showy flower of a movie....The big emotions bring out the best in a stellar cast..." -- Rating: B 01/21/2000 p.83 Premiere
"...Jaw-dropping audacity....MAGNOLIA's a source of astonishment..." -- 4 out of 5 stars 09/01/2000 pp.84-5 Box Office
"...All performances are flawless....Artful...[With a] heartbreakingly dead-on insight into the human condition..." -- 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/2000 p.59 Los Angeles Times
"...It's an impressive piece of work with some fine acting..." 12/17/1999 p.C1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...MAGNOLIA is operatic in its ambition, a great, joyous leap into melodrama and coincidence....As its themes unfold, its characters strive against the dying of the light, and the great wheel of chance rolls on toward them..." 01/07/2000 p.21 Total Film
"Cruise isn't just self-mocking: his Mackey is fully realised." 07/01/2006 p.136 Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
Magnolia is the kind of film I instinctively respond to. Leave logic at the door. Do not expect subdued taste and restraint, but instead a kind of operatic ectasy. At three hours it is even operatic in length, as its themes unfold, its characters strive against the dying of the light, and the great wheel of chance rolls on toward them. - Roger Ebert
Boxoffice Magazine 10 of 10
...Anderson tells the tales of remorse and hope among the lonely, the misguided, the desperate...All performances are flawless, and the masterful fluidity with which...Anderson puts down one strand to pick up another is as artful as his heartbreakingly dead-on insight into the human condition. - Christine James
Reel Views 9 of 10
...a fascinating and worthwhile motion picture that manages to keep viewers interested in the plights of ten different characters for nearly its full length--right up to and through the improbable climax. Not since Robert Altman's Short Cuts have we seen such a finely-tuned ensemble piece. - James Berardinelli
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