Directed by:
Paul Thomas AndersonScreenplay:
Paul Thomas AndersonCinematography:
Paul Thomas AndersonComposer:
Jonny GreenwoodCast:
Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Richard Graham, Camilla Rutherford, Jason Redshaw, Cedric Tylleman, Gina McKee, Brian Gleeson (more)VOD (3)
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Set in the glamour of 1950’s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love. With his latest film, Paul Thomas Anderson paints an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running. (Universal Pictures UK)
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Reviews (11)
Acting-wise, there's probably nothing much to fault with Phantom Thread, although it's too bad that Daniel Day-Lewis is saying goodbye, but it's his choice and it's a good send-off, showing once again what a great actor he is. But plot-wise, the film failed to pull me in as much as I had hoped, but that's almost always the case with Anderson's films.
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The aesthetics and thoroughness are so phenomenal that I only regret the amount of space Reynolds' ego receives in the story. If his repetitive manners and utmost despotism were replaced by the richer background of Alma or Cyril, this deliberately unpaced, original, and falsely dramatized display of audiovisual beauty would perhaps have reached even the unattainable.
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The relationship between an anal-retentive insensitive machine and a romantic honest soul could hardly be portrayed more convincingly. Anderson lets the story flow easily and puts Woodcock’s daily routine front-stage, gradually increasing the intensity of the conflicts that will so thoroughly turn upside down the world of the protagonist. The narrative structure is held without a single stumble and the superb music and great performances make this film something more than just a cold work of art – its coldness and focus are so remarkable that I almost forgave it for not keeping my full attention in all the scenes and that the end arrived at a moment when I still didn’t want it. I might forgive that with time, but now I can humbly admire the surgical precision of the direction and pray that films like this will not be only an exception. 85%
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Are you really all fine with the ending that almost made me knock a star off my rating? Such a
detailed and focused, professionally cold and intelligent study of the relationship between two
people – one from the farthest corner of Mars and the other from the farthest part of Venus – with
such brilliantly escalating tension and a creeping threat of tragedy... coming to such inadequately
banal nothingness that, in terms of the script, does not resolve anything? Yes, that’s what would
probably happen in real life, but I expect something more from P.T. Anderson’s movie. All three
actors are wonderful and the constant use of Greenwood’s music with a touch of classicism is
interesting, helping to set the movie in its period and harmonizing with the distinguished character of
Woodcock’s robes.
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Do you know that feeling you get when you watch a movie with Daniel Day-Lewis (who has been awarded several Oscars) in his final role, you see that he is absolutely enjoying himself acting-wise but at the same time, you know that everything else in the movie is brutally average, uninteresting and absolutely pointless? You don’t? Well, watch Phantom Thread, then.
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