Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6934 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-01-02
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 186 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A handful of people in California's San Fernando Valley are having one hell of a day. TV mogul Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is on his deathbed; his trophy wife (Julianne Moore) is stockpiling tranquilliser prescriptions all over town with alarming determination. Earl's nurse (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is trying desperately to get in touch with Earl's only son, sex-guru Frank TJ Mackey (Tom Cruise), who's about to have his carefully constructed past blown by a TV reporter (April Grace). Whiz kid Stanley (Jeremy Blackman) is being goaded by his selfish dad into breaking the record for the game show What Do Kids Know? Meanwhile, Stanley's predecessor, the grown-up quiz kid Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) has lost his job and is nursing a severe case of unrequited love. And the host of What Do Kids Know?, the affable Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall), like Earl, is dying of cancer, and his attempt to reconcile with his cokehead daughter (Melora Walters) fails miserably. She, meanwhile, is running hot and cold with a cop (John C. Reilly) who would love to date her, if she can sit still for long enough. And over it all, a foreboding sky threatens to pour something more than just rain.

This third feature from Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights) is a maddening, magnificent piece of film-making, and an ensemble film to rank with the best of Robert Altman (Short Cuts, Nashville)--every little piece of the film means something, solidly placed for a reason. Deftly juggling a breathtaking ensemble of actors, Anderson crafts a tale of neglectful parents, resentful children and love-starved souls that's amazing in scope, both thematically and emotionally. Part of the charge of Magnolia is seeing exactly how may characters Anderson can juggle, and can he keep all those balls in air (indeed he can, even if it means throwing frogs into the mix). And it's been far too long since we've seen a film-maker whose love of making movies is so purely joyful. This electric energy is reflected in the actors, from Cruise's revelatory performance to Reilly's quietly powerful turn as the moral centre of the story. While at three hours it's definitely not suited to everyone's taste, Magnolia is a compelling, heartbreaking, ultimately hopeful meditation on the accidents of chance that make up our lives. The soundtrack features eight wonderful songs by Aimee Mann, including "Save Me", around which Anderson built the script. --Mark Englehart

Independent On Sunday
Brilliant...superb...a great film.

Special Features
16:9 Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1

Customer Reviews

3 hour long episode of a soap opera
Just seemed to me like a load of episodes of a soap opera condensed into one. Lots of rather meaningless plots, some maybe even interwoven.
A lot of people seem to like this film, but a warning to the rest of you, it is like that film 'Crash', the one with Sandra Bullock in it. No plot, no story, just interminable.

Some people have said that those who don't like this film are "thickies", and only like Die Hard etc., well you are entitled to your opinions, what a pity you don't have any respect for any other peoples' opinions when they don't coincide with your own.

Yours Thick Nic, BSc. Physics, favourite film 'A Beautiful Mind'.

Extraordinary!
Well I think that this may be one of the best half dozen films I have ever seen. After a first, extraordinary, fifteen minutes of images and scenes fired at you, which must be one of the best opening sequences you're likely to see, the pace never slackens, the film never drags at any point, and the artistry and intelligence of the film-making propels you through the stories being told. The interweaving of characters and scenes is brilliantly done, all the acting is superb, and Tom Cruise in particular is an amazing presence. Just fantastic!

Right up there alongside watching paint dry or the grass grow...absolutely awful!
I am literally flabbergasted by the amount of positive reviews for this film, both from critics and reviewers like myself. I can only think (or hope) that the feedback is deeply biased in favour of the film because the vast majority of those who despised this film could not bring themselves to write about it; in case it provoked any kind of memory of no doubt the worst movie they've ever seen!

From start to finish, this film goes nowhere. It does little to engage the viewer with any of the characters as there are simply too many to follow. Throughout this ambling, collection of coincidences, I waited in vain for something meaningful to develop, some clear scene to explain the mindless drivel that had gone before. But alas, one hour went by and I had no such scene. Then two hours and I consoled myself with the fact that I had just a mere 60 minutes to sit through.

However, 60 minutes becomes a lifetime when you watch Magnolia. As you sit through scene after scene of frankly baffling and unconnected events (I use the term 'events' with a heavy heart) you search infinitely for a light at the end of the tunnel. But no light appears and you find yourself yearning to simply turn off the DVD. But no...you can't. Surely. SURELY there is a reason for all of these nonesensical happenings? You check your watch (with such regularity that you know when a minute is exactly up) time and again as you realise with unreserved joy that the 3 hour benchmark is drawing close. How will it end?

The final scene begins- of course you don't know it yet, it's as lucklustre as all the other 38,000 scenes that have gone before. (I pity the poor guy from the production company who had to edit the hours and hours of tape to create the 'finished' film) And suddenly a calm washes over you, this is the time...now they will unravel the secrets of the whole mystery...each character comes into view, be they dead or alive...and then...Credits roll down the screen...ending all hopes of you obtaining some justification for throwing 3 hours of your life away but giving you further justification for throwing the DVD itself away.

And then you search on the Internet for some kind of guidance to the mish-mash of critically acclaimed cinema you have just seen and you find only those who seek to lavish praise upon the director for his courageous use of characters, storylines and his ability to create a 'powerful' and 'unforgettable' film. And that's when you really do have to reach for the painkillers.

In all honesty I would feel uneasy about using this DVD as a door stop let alone keeping it in my house, within reach of other human beings to possibly innocently view one day. So please...save your friends, your loved ones and of course yourselves. This is not one to set your eyes upon, let alone rent or buy. The only justification in the purchase of this film is as a 'gift' for a boss who works you well over your contracted hours, makes snide remarks about you or to you and has tried it on one too many times at the Christmas party (2 out of 3 isn't enough...remember 'Magnolia' could well be considered as a murder weapon in a court of law...)