Magnolia (1999)

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Normally a run time of three hours for a film causes eye-glazing, but Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar-nominated epic is riveting, from the opening narration to the closing shot.

Multi-layered, it follows the lives of a group of Los Angeles residents over 24 hours, from TV stars to a cop, from a nurse to a failed quiz-show contestant. Some of the residents are related, others work together, yet others' lives just happen to coincide. There are crimes, death, romance, shattered dreams, all underpinned by a score from Aimee Mann that successfully counterpoints the action.

If there is a centre, it is the dying TV producer Earl Partridge (Jason Robards Sr., pictured), his genuinely grief-stricken wife Linda (Julianne Moore) and his estranged son Frank Mackey (Tom Cruise), who runs a series of successful seminars telling men how to seduce - then dump - women.

Peripheral, but equally compelling, are Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall), host of a popular kid's quiz show, Donnie Smith (William H. Macy), once a quiz star, now reduced to crime to pay for dental work and cop Jim Curring (John C. Reilly), who sees his job as much as a Samaritan as a law officer. But they are just a few of the characters who inhabit the film which has been compared to Robert Altman's best work.

Highly recommended.

Magnolia is a Film programme that first aired in 1999 and has been rated 18.

Magnolia is a five star programme.

Next Show Times

• United Kingdom
• United States

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