I had the rare privilege of being one of the first people to see Writer/Director Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film, 'Inherent Vice' at The New York Film Festival. Let me say now, this is not only one of my favorite films of the year, this is one of my favorite films of all time.
I love Paul Thomas Anderson. I will watch the man make a movie about making pancakes. My love for PTA aside, I feel 'Inherent Vice' is a rare and very special film.
There is a lot to love about 'Inherent Vice' - the cast, the soundtrack, the fact that it is the first adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, etc. After seeing the film, I couldn't totally pinpoint what it was I loved so much about it. After sitting and thinking about the film for a week, I have come to a fairly radical conclusion. I love 'Inherent Vice' because it is simple. It is a simple, complex beautiful film. That is a major oxymoron. Let me explain.
'Inherent Vice' isn't really about anything. Take that in for a second. Every film has a story, a plot, if you will and that is certainly true of 'Inherent Vice' and it's plot is interesting and a ton of fun; BUT in the end, this film isn't about the plot at all. 'Inherent Vice' like many PTA films is about the character's journey in this grand world he (and in this case Thomas Pynchon) created. What is different about this film is the world leads back to where it began. Things happen, hilarity ensues, but when all is said and done, 'Inherent Vice' comes down to Doc (Joaquin Phoenix's character). It is all about Doc. How Doc feels, what Doc sees, what Doc wants and maybe what Doc can't or doesn't have. The film is never about the crime or the drugs or the wacky characters running in and out of the "plot". It is about the simplest of things... a man and the woman he loves.
You see, the beauty of 'Inherent Vice' is although so much is happening, plot twists, corrupt cops, Nazi bikers, hookers, drugs, Government spies, and a Private Investigator trying to put all these puzzle pieces together, the puzzle doesn't matter. Doc's emotions are the puzzle. Doc's emotions are the plot. The investigation in 'Inherent Vice' is really an investigation of emotions, as opposed to the plot device of investigating a crime.
So, at the end of the day, the movie starts and ends in the same place - in Doc's house with the woman Doc loves and neither one of them knowing what to do about how they feel... but they're both feeling it.
'Inherent Vice' is a blast and a half and upon first viewing may seem hard to follow and strange, but at the end of the day, all of the wild antics that take place never really mattered in the grand scheme of the story. The story is the simplest story of them all... the first story ever told... boy meets girl.
And this is why I love Paul Thomas Anderson. He made a two and a half hour beautiful, comedic thriller that had me laughing and on the edge of my seat. When the movie ended, I was pondering the emotions I felt and began thinking about the film for a week.
What I realized, and what, in my opinion, is the best part of 'Inherent Vice' is it could have started and ended in one scene with two seconds and three words. "I love you."
- George McCann
