I'm sure you've watched movies that had characters you've hated. Not villains for sure - they're meant to be hated, but the ones we're supposed to be rooting for.
And surely you've also seen films that you just disliked (hated) every frame of.
Paul Thomas Anderson's "Phantom Thread" is just that sort of movie. And Daniel Day-Lewis, as Reynolds Woodcock, portrays just that type of detestable character. A high-end dress-maker who's a confirmed bachelor, he decides now is the time in his life for romance.
When Alma (Vicky Krieps) comes into Woodcock's, life, boy does it just get turned on its head in a boring, meaningless and vicious way.
Watching Woodcock treat Alma with such malice for over two hours is more than unpleasant, it's tedious. We're meant to feel terrible as he mistreats her, but somehow, we don't. In the end, Alma is left with a twisted kind of justice but by that point, Oh my God, who cares?
Almost as soon as the lights dimmed, I was in misery. As a general rule I try not to dump all over bad movies, but I this time I just want to warn you.The film is essentially about the joy of cruelty. And it argues that the answer to that cruelty is more of the same. You might say: "But Resident Film Snob, I thought you loved long artsy movies like this." That's true, I do. I'm a sucker for pretention, but this film isn't art. It's a bore.
Partway through "Phantom Thread" I found myself asking, "What the hell happened to Paul Thomas Anderson?" By the end of the film, I didn't care.
Yes, Daniel Day-Lewis is a fantastic actor and normally interesting to see what he brings to any film. I just wished I were watching "Gangsters of New York" or "There will be Blood" or even "My Left Foot."
I'm going to take a page from the late Roger Ebert's book and say "I hated, hated, hated this movie." Because he was wise enough to know that it's important to recognize and condemn bad films just as much as it is to celebrate great films.
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