The Master

The first image in The Master is the wake of a ship. It’s an image that Anderson returns to three times; an image that evokes turmoil, the churn of water, and also a picture of the past, the vestige of a journey. Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) is not one for introspection or for dwelling on the past, so he claims. He will tell that to the military therapist who examines him before he resumes civilian life after WWII, and again, a couple of years later, when he agrees to go through “processing” with the Master, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on board a steam ship Dodd has borrowed.

Processing — Scientologists call it “auditing” — is similar to therapy except that Dodd wants to take his patients further back than any Freudian, beyond their childhood and into their past lives. He also has a more hands-on, interactive methodology than psychotherapy, one that might involve (for example), walking from one end of a room to another again and again and again and again, and describing what you find there.

Dodd calls his Church “the Cause.” And Freddie is a 1950s rebel, looking for something to believe in it, even if it’s only himself. And what does Dodd see in Freddie? An uneducated, unprocessed man very far from the purity that the Cause is working towards. But there is also some kind of deeper bond, or kinship that no one in Dodd’s circle comprehends, but which may have something to do with opposites attracting, and the call of the wild. Freddie has one natural talent, a gift for concocting powerful cocktails out of raw alcohol and paint thinner, or anything else he can lay his paws on. Cultured and debonair, Dodd has a thing for the hard stuff. Fans of Anderson will recognise the dynamics here: the paternal older man who mentors a young apprentice, we’ve seen that in Hard Eight and Boogie Nights, in Magnolia and in a twisted form in There Will Be Blood.

The Master can be seen as a further installment in PTA’s chronicle of the American century, a reflection on the impact of WWII and the spiritual rootlessness that took hold in the 50s. What it’s not is an expose of Scientology. Dodd certainly comes across as a charlatan and an egomaniac, but a relatively likable one — someone who does want to help, just so long as it’s on his terms.

But Anderson is more taken with Freddie, a drifter, a womanizer, an alcoholic, and a lost soul. He’s a free man, and miserable about it — searching for a captain who can see him safely home.

The Master demonstrates a remarkable lucidity and assurance… this is an enthralling drama about a peculiarly American restlessness, and the striving for insight and grace.

CNN

This is a glorious movie, an omnivorous, many-coloured satire on the chameleon-hued carnivores of our souls.

Nigel Ancrews, Financial Times

This portrait of 1950s America is like none you’ve ever seen, and it’s unsettling – but the minute it was over, I wanted to watch it again.

Moira McDonald, Seattle Times