Phantom Thread

Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread is a chilly, hermetically sealed gothic romance. Anderson's oeuvre, an impressive one, has two kinds of film. His shaggier, looser, warmer, more Altmanesque films celebrate alternative surrogate families amidst a corrupt culture: Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Inherent Vice. His colder more obsessive and Kubrickian films usually follow an egoist at war with the world: There Will Be Blood, The Master and, now, Phantom Thread. By providing an evenly matched battle of the sexes, Anderson not only gives us a compelling film, but also one that exhibits artistic growth.

Part of that growth, as Molly Haskell has noted, is that Anderson has finally created a fully rounded female character to tussle with his male monster; named (ahem) Woodcock. Vicky Krieps' Alma goes toe to toe with Daniel Day Lewis' big bad fashion designer and makes him bend to her will. It is to Anderson's credit that Krieps is able to share the screen with one of the great actors of our day and more than hold her own. Lesley Manville is wonderful as the designer's sister, Cyril. A number of reviewers have written that she is playing the 'Mrs. Danvers' role, but I believe this is a misreading of the film. Mrs. Danvers is not sympathetic to the new Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca because she is devoted to the first Mrs. de Winter with an all-consuming passion. Cyril is initially portrayed as doing her brother's bidding, even going so far as to inform one of his girlfriends when she has been dumped. Alma's willingness to stand up for herself and defy Woodcock's domestic tyranny earns her Cyril's admiration and affection. Cyril comes to respect Alma because Alma is willing to combat Woodcock's controlling tendencies, something Cyril is too codependent to do. 

The film is marvelously produced and has some of the most effective sound mixing in recent memory. Chairs scraping the floor and knives chopping mushrooms and spreading butter are the hue and cry of this domestic conflict and are indelibly rendered. About the only drawback to Phantom Thread's claustrophobic chamber play is that it lacks the big picture, color and polyphony that are among Anderson's greatest gifts. His restraint, no plague of frogs or milkshakes here, is wholly suited to this project and is also indicative of his growth. (2/13/18)