P.T. Anderson’s “The Master”
Word has it the uber-talented Amy Adams has joined also uber-talented Philip Seymour Hoffman in the cast of the currently untitled P.T. Anderson project. The proposed film was formerly titled The Master and, word has it, will be about the rise of a religion-inventing figure similar to L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.
Color me thrilled. Anderson is among the finest of today’s filmmakers, and he has an insightful and critical eye for religiosity akin to Flannery O’Connor and Dante, although as far as I know he no longer p
ractices the Catholic faith. If memory serves, in reviewing Magnolia, Terry Teachout mentioned that Anderson considered that film as a confession of sorts. Anyhow, as Teachout also mentioned, he’s a filmmaker concerned with matters of life and death. Magnolia dealt with atonement. Boogie Nights explored the meaning of family and forgiveness in the maniacally ego-driven porn industry. There Will Be Blood arguably gave a depiction of contrapasso on par with Dante’s Inferno.
If his early films are any indication, P.T. Anderson will tell a symbolically and dramatically heavy story, thematically layered with complex moral and religious meaning, about very flawed and very human characters.
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