Phantom Thread

PHANTOM THREAD – is written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will be Blood”, “Inherent Vice”, “Boogie Nights”). But I didn’t know Thomas Anderson and the former SNL actress Maya Rudolph have been together for years and have 4 kids. Can’t believe I’d never heard that before.

The film takes place in 1950’s London and is about a very fussy fashion designer named Reynolds Woodcock, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, (who claims this is his final movie role, we’ll see about that). Woodcock is a genius at his craft, but he’s also full of himself, and seems to suffer from OCD and HSP (highly sensitive person) which is really a thing. He can’t stand noises, even stuff like people chewing. Everything must be routine. He has to be told about certain matters only at certain carefully chosen moments or he goes off. His no-nonsense spinster sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) who runs Woodcock’s fashion house, can handle him and his moods. She also handles his love life, in that when Reynolds can no longer tolerate the woman he’s currently seeing, sister Cyril is the one that breaks up with the woman for him, and sends each chick packing. But when he meets a both guileless and knowing waitress, Alma (played by newcomer Vicky Krieps), she becomes his latest muse and model, only she’s not as easy to get rid of, for reasons layered within all three characters.

The costume designer is Mark Bridges who normally works on more contemporary movies like The Fifty Shades movies and Silver Linings Playbook. However, for this film he got to create over 50 garments for the film, all constructed from scratch in the traditional couture manner – mostly beautiful post war, high fashion dresses, the movie is just wonderfully filled with dress porn! He also created a large wardrobe of things for Daniel Day Lewis and just let the actor put together what he wanted to wear from that wardrobe; as you know, with Daniel Day-Lewis being such a super method actor, Bridges felt it would be better to let him dress himself from head to toe.

In addition, before the film began shooting, Day-Lewis spent months learning traditional dressmaking techniques, by attending an apprenticeship in the costume department at the New York City Ballet. Where he painstakingly re-created a 1950s Balenciaga gown — using his wife, writer/filmmaker Rebecca Miller, as a model.

Surprisingly, the movie eventually goes to a very odd place, with elements of a black comedy, which you don’t see coming, and yet somehow fits. I would not call it Hitchcockian though, as many critics are saying, comparing it to my very favorite movie “Rebecca”. Even though, I can see their point in the fact that the house where they all live and work is sort of a character in the movie (like Manderley), and the possessiveness of the sister is similar to Mrs. Danvers, and of course Alma is an unsophisticated girl brought into a very sophisticated existence, falling in love with a difficult man; yet for some reason as I was watching it, I didn’t pick up on these similarities. I do however, like the movie a great deal, despite it being a little long, with a few false endings. On the whole, it’s a gorgeous film.

T&T’s the Large Association of Movie Blogs (aka the LAMb) rating: 4.5 outta 5