Paul Thomas Anderson is a truly accomplished filmmaker whose offbeat st0ries offer unique, different views of our world.  When he is on point, as with Boogie Nights (1997), he’s one of the best in the business.  The trouble for me is that I have enjoyed very few of his films since then, accomplished as they may be, and a couple of them I’ve downright hated.  I don’t hate Phantom Thread, which is a meticulously studied exploration of love in 1950s Britain, but I don’t love it, either.

Anderson’s film centers on Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), an eccentric fashion designer whose personal life takes a tumble when he meets a young waitress, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who quickly becomes his lover and muse.  This sounds fairly conventional, and it is, until Alma decides to put her foot down regarding her aloof paramour / boss, when it delves into the strange, almost absurd narrative territory that Anderson likes to claim as his own.

The film moves from incredibly detailed fashion business to an acute glimpse of what it is like for a designer to have his designs worn by people who don’t know how to properly appreciate (or deserve) them.  Some really interesting stuff happens before the film suddenly takes a left turn into psychological turmoil.  I think then that Anderson is trying to say something quite profound about love — about how simply needing someone else to need you is paramount to any love story — but the way in which he tells the story is maddening and, frankly, hard to swallow.  By the end, it is clear that Woodcock and Alma deserve each other.  But by then I had tired of both of them; these are characters with whom I would never cross paths in real life, nor would I want to.

Phantom Thread is a very well made movie about people I didn’t much care about at all, and the more that I knew, the less I liked them.  Alma’s ultimate love test for Woodcock is revolting, not to mention cruel.  But if he is up for it, fine for him.  It’s just not something I want to watch, and so I have difficulty recommending this otherwise somewhat rewarding story.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  3 March 2018.