PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN’S
PERFORMANCE IN THE MASTER
The Master is a film I admired
immensely but did not particularly enjoy. It does, however, contain three
outstanding lead performances of fairly equal stature from Joaquin Phoenix,
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, and come next year I suspect all of them
will have one more Oscar nomination than they do now. You’ll probably hear the
most, though, about Joaquin Phoenix, and deservedly so. His is a performance
with depth and skill; his contorted face never distracting from eyes that are
constantly flicking about, always searching for an escape even when one isn’t
necessary.
That’s why I want to pay tribute to a
performance that might not receive as many plaudits but is no less
extraordinary. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator
and his commanding performance as cult leader Lancaster Dodd is right up there
with his best. For the film to really work, it's almost entirely dependent on
Hoffman convincing us that Dodd is the kind of man people will follow, a
charismatic, authoritative man with a vision he fully believes. Hoffman does
all that and more. It’s no coincidence he’s in the film’s three best scenes and
it’s also no coincidence he shares each one with a completely different
performer. He’s the constant around which ‘The Master’ builds and layers its
themes. He’s been brilliant for a long, long time and if he wasn’t already, he
must surely now be considered one of America’s greatest actors.
Honourable Mention: Judi Dench was the
best thing about the Pierce Brosnan era of James Bond movies, often holding
them together with her bare hands, and she has only further come into her own
since Daniel Craig took the reins. In Skyfall,
she is simply tremendous: commanding, steely and conflicted. Director Sam
Mendes gives her something to work with and it is forever to the film’s
advantage that he did.
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