Magnolia begins with the dramatic re-telling of three extraordinary events. A man is murdered by three men whose surnames iterate the town in which he was murdered, a scuba diver is lifted up by a seaplane and dropped onto a forest fire, and a man's failed suicide attempt turns successful when he is accidentally shot by his shotgun-wielding mother. Such events hold little importance in the actual story of Magnolia, a story of how the lives and struggles of nine very different people slowly become intertwined on one rainy day. What is important in these first few scenes is the message, one that should definitely strike a chord with Christian audiences. As the narrator begins relating the stories, he makes them sound as though they are simply "a matter of chance." By the third account, however, he expresses his firm belief that "this was not just a matter of chance. These strange things happen all the time."
Paul Thomas Anderson's intentions are questionable. Does the director of......
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Approximate Word Count: 954
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |