January 5, 2018 2 min to read

Phantom Thread

Vibrant Characters, a gorgeous score, and another addition to Paul Thomas Anderson's Mantle.

by Zach Saul

Phantom Thread is a gorgeous, uncomfortable and surreal experience. There was a spirited debate amongst my friends about who was more impressive: Daniel Day-Lewis or Vicki Kreips, and that speaks to how excellent both performances were. Paul Thomas Anderson so skilfully creates “anti-protagonists” in his films - and Reynolds is no exception. He’s equal parts creepy and gentle - and it leaves us endlessly curious about what exactly makes Reynolds tick.

He’s not exactly a Jigalo. He’s not purely insecure. He’s not delusional - but it becomes clear as the movie progresses he has a destructive relationship with power. He’s an artist who possesses a supreme inability to adapt to minuscule change - and that manifests in his relationship with Alma. However what makes this movie different from its predecessors is that Alma came into Reynolds life ready to tango - and spends Phantom Thread calling him out, and plotting his physical demise.

There’s a very dark adage that “truly great art has to come from a place of pain” - and I think Anderson is commenting on that idea in Phantom Thread. By the end, we realize that despite his rigidness Reynolds (previously opposed to settling down) craved pain in a sense - and perhaps an intellectual peer as well. I don’t think Phantom Thread is necessarily endorsing this idea - but instead telling a story of a tortured artist who’s psyche believes it.

The Good: The score in Phantom Thread is outstanding, and Daniel Day-Lewis (in what’s rumored as his farewell performance) gives his career a tremendous crescendo and showcases his versatility as an actor. Phantom Thread is particularly successful at creating tension in very simple settings because its characters are so rich. Thanks to Alma and Reynolds complexity, Phantom Thread is a film that sweeps you up into Reynold’s design fantasies and then jolts you awake when you least expect it.

The Bad: The pacing is slow - and fans of frenetic pacing and quick-cut editing will probably find this one difficult. Phantom Thread is a very deliberate and slow character study that’s full of subtleties and ambiguity. If anyone tells you Phantom Thread is frustratingly dense - they’re right, and the movie is unapologetic about it.