Initially touted as a stealth biopic on Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, The Master is actually less about the founding and propagation of a cult than the uneasy, complex relationship between the eponymous Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) and Freddie Quell (Phoenix), an aimless, broken drifter who literally stumbles his way into Dodd`s home, family and, eventually, cult. Freddie is all uncontrolled, chaotic id, a mess of a man hooked on his self-brewed moonshine and pulsing with dark, furious rage. No one, least of all Dodd`s tightly-wound wife Peggy (Adams), understands why he keeps Freddie around.
The Master is no easy watch. Not because it`s poorly-filmed – actually, the cinematography is lovely, with scenes composed and framed in a painterly fashion. It`s because Anderson`s fractured narrative is so difficult to absorb. What plot there is cycles from repetitive to dreamy, drifting without warning into flashback and skipping whole years and backstory with little explanation. A great deal of attention is lavished on Dodd`s attempts to civilise the animalistic Freddie – to humanise him within the unusual, rigid strictures of his movement – but blink and their oddly co-dependent relationship disappears into the ether. The entire film can feel curiously stifled and pointless, especially since Freddie seems barely able to change in the way Dodd is clearly hoping he will.
But, get over the initial alienating effect of the film, and there`s a staggering amount of ideas and themes to chew over. The parallels and contrasts between Dodd and Freddie are particularly rich and striking – one is ambitious, smart, entrepreneurial; the other unfocused, unthinking and functioning more on instinct than initiative. And yet both men have impulse control issues, a point made whenever Dodd`s super-smooth demeanour slips a little bit and he lashes out, snarling and spitting, at his devoted followers. On the surface, Dodd is Freddie`s master: the voice he tries to listen to, the man he protects fiercely and recklessly. But Dodd himself is not immune to Freddie`s strange, volcanic charisma. It`s their relationship that yields the best scenes in the movie: one in which Freddie reaches back into his memories when being `processed` by Dodd, or another when the audience gets to watch the two men`s hugely different reactions to being thrown into a concrete cage.
As always, Anderson has drawn a top-drawer cast to fill out the ranks of his film. Hoffman is always great, but is especially memorable here for his fantastically restrained performance. The part of Dodd could have withstood the hammiest of turns, full of potential for bluster and fire. Hoffman chooses instead to underplay the role, and it works remarkably well. Adams, too, plays against type as the real power within the Cause: she`s not cute here so much as faintly terrifying, proving in one sexually-charged bathroom scene how little authority the great Lancaster Dodd has away from his pulpit.
It is Phoenix, however, who turns in an utterly staggering, transformative performance as a very human monster of a man. He disappears beneath Freddie`s troubled, age-worn skin, folding his character`s perpetual sneer and hunched, awkward gait into his bones and body. Beyond the physical tics, however, what`s really impressive is how he manages to turn Freddie into an utterly riveting presence onscreen. It`s impossible to take your eyes off him when Freddie is burning up and bottoming out in spectacular fashion.
Truth be told, The Master is a difficult movie to adore wholeheartedly. There is very little human warmth on display, and Anderson seems to delight in making everything as enigmatic and obtuse as possible. But, while the film and its myriad ideas won`t necessarily trouble the heart, they will take up residence in the brain, and odds are you`ll find yourself thinking about the characters and their deep, troubled, broken relationship long after the credits roll.
Summary: A film that alienates, frustrates and puzzles in equal measure, but one that also improves and deepens in retrospect.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Shawne Wang