Tropic Sprockets / Phantom Thread

Tropic Sprockets / Phantom Thread

By Ian Brockway

The invariably intense Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”) sets a new drama in the fashion industry with “Phantom Thread,” loosely based on the designer Charles James. The film is meditative, rhythmic, tense and disturbing. The film creeps and twists back and forth until hitting with a wallop.

Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a famed yet eccentric dressmaker in 1950s England. He is a man of harsh routine. Reynolds has his own set time for reflection, work and meals, fixed regularly without fail. The slightest deviation sets him into a harsh and biting temper.

Reynolds lives with his sister Cyrill (Lesley Manville) and refuses to marry at all cost, lest his routine be altered.

By chance, Reynolds goes to a restaurant for breakfast and he is struck by the earthy and alluring waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps). The designer feels compelled to make a dress for her. A relationship ensues. Reynolds is taken by Alma’s opinionated manner, and she is star-struck by the dressmaker’s dashing charisma. Yet soon the artist’s cult following brings a toxic resentment.

This film takes its time. With minute detail we see that Reynolds lives for his work and regards each project as a respite from the panic of human interaction. Dresses are textile clouds as this perfectionist dictates his orders from Afar without question or debate.

Daniel Day-Lewis, a true chameleon in most every role he plays, is wonderful once again, nearly unrecognizable. Krieps is compelling too as Alma, who is both fetching and unnerving.

This gradually anxious film is sure to please lovers of claustrophobic drama. In its echoes of Hitchcock and Kubrick, once the anxiety starts, it doesn’t let go. The tingling and circuitous musical score intensifies the worry.

The film oscillates back and forth in satisfying teases: is Reynolds a dictator or a besotted lover? Suffice to say, those expecting a conventional drama will be as rudely surprised as Reynolds is when greeted by noisy silverware.

With five nominations, terrific performances and an uncompromising ending, “Phantom Thread” well deserves its Best Picture nomination for this year’s Academy Award. Like “Vertigo” or the work of Polanski, the film highlights to some extremely bizarre behavior lurking just below the surface of domesticity.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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