Phil asks a very interesting question: What, exactly, is P.T. Anderson's Magnolia about? If you had to summarize it for someone who had never seen it before, what would you say? "A rain of frogs? Life in the San Fernando Valley? People who are unraveling? People who want to become better?"

It's funny because I had never really thought about it before - and Magnolia is one of my favorite films of all time. I saw it six times in the movie theatres when it came out in 1999; even dragged a new bunch of people every time I saw it. And I still rewatch it every year, by the way. At least twice (and I am still floored every single time). If my math is right, I will have seen it a good twenty four times at least, but I'm at a loss for summary words.

When I dragged all my friends (some of their friends and this one guy I was kinda dating at the time) to see the movie, I was frantic. I don't think I told them anything objectively convincing. I just pulled them by the hand and exclaimed "Basta!" Most of them liked it, with maybe an exception of two or three people. I remember somebody saying, "I can kind of sense that something really great happened there, I'm just not sure I was able to follow it all."

A film teacher I once met said that most of the greatest films of all time are the ones that have the simplest stories; the ones that can be summarized in one sentence even. I guess you can make an argument for that. Bicycle Thief is just about a guy whose bicycle gets stolen. Citizen Kane is a veiled portayal of William Randolph Hearst. However, you can also, just as easily, make an argument for a less simplified case. It may be that most of the greatest films of all time, despite having the simplest stories, are the ones that touch on many, many aspects of human life.

Magnolia is about a lot of characters and character relationships. One of the reasons I keep watching the film again and again is that I can focus each time on a different character or character relationship, maybe even see something I hadn't seen there before.



But I think, for me, it's William H. Macy as former "Quiz Kid" Donnie Smith that gets me every time. Near the end of the film we see him, bleeding, missing his front teeth. He's completely broken, but he's also for the first time thinking straight. "I do have so much love to give," he says, tearfully, "I just don't know where to put it." How is that for a summary? It's a film about people who have so much love inside them and don't know what to do with it.

And it rains frogs.