2018 Film Review: Phantom Thread (2017)

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville
IMDb Link

This was one of the more unique film experiences I've had lately. Phantom Thread dials everything it has down so that we have the opportunity to see the value that film has in even the lightest action.

The story follows Reynolds Woodcock, a dressmaker with a diligent life, artificially constructed to create the most measured sense of order. He meets Alma, a defiant and decisive woman who becomes his muse, but warps his purpose in the process with her differences to him.

The film is masterfully subtle in its construction, holding back at almost every potential opportunity to allow for appreciation of the littlest factors offered by everything we see. The actors are phenomenal, giving soft and nuanced performances that can evoke emotion at the lightest of movements; just the softening of eyes or a half-curl in the lips is notable. The film goes to great lengths to remain unobtrusive and let the actors own their roles, in the process further emphasising their movements and expressions. Anderson's style is deliberate and realistic here, spending as much or as little time as needed to see everything the lead characters do.

As a film about a dressmaker, it should be expected that the costumes are excellent, and Phantom Thread is a champion of a film in this regard as well. The dresses are absolutely gorgeous, with an incredible amount of detail spent on designing them and showing them off included in the film. The film makes them feel like intimate inspirations of fashion, and the dresses speak for themselves when you get to see them.

The writing is effectively unsettling, once again like everything else quiet in its execution until it wants you to feel something. It's at once charming and chilling, until the former slowly fades over the course of the first act and you can only be silently uncomfortable in your seat; after that, the film nudges you around in this state before it leaves you to digest the implications of what the film suggests with its ending.   

The Short Version: Phantom Thread is a slow and meticulous journey, marked by its momentary strangeness and pleasure taken in the smallest of things. The film restrains itself so much that it brings out the subtlest of great performances from its cast, and offers the chance to deliberately notice even the tiniest of visual detail.

Rating: 9/10

Published February 6th, 2018