Phantom Thread

[zico]

6/10. Slow (very) and meticulous character study film starring Daniel Day-Lewis going for yet another oscar.

Daniel Day-Lewis stars as a self-centred fashion designer in 1950's London who controls everyone around him, the type of character so beloved by Hollywood "We creatives need to live by different rules and standards to you normal everyday folk". His character just needs someone to give him a slap and tell him to behave, but that would be a very short film, so instead we are treated to lots and lots of lingering scenes where Daniel is a pain in 57 varieties of ways.

The film is centred around his relationship with a very young waitress. When she first sees him in her restaurant, we're invited to believe that she finds him very handsome and attractive, rather than thinking "I wonder if the poor old geezer by the window needs an extra blanket to keep warm" but this is standard Hollywood-fantasy, I guess, where 20-something women being attracted to blokes in their 60's is commonplace. A weakness of the film for me is that there's not enough to explain why the characters are attracted to each other - there's certainly plenty about why they wouldn't get on. For his character, Daniel relies heavily on Dad's Army for inspiration, looking like John Le Mesurier, but with the character of Arthur Lowe. He certainly fleshes out the character very well, with all sorts of little tics and habits.

There's a fair bit of occasional subtle humour, along the lines of lots of genteel polite understated confrontations over how much noise you should make while eating, and people saying things like "chin up" in response to complaints. This is one of these films where the characters look at each other, and lots of things are left unsaid. If you like watching people in restaurants and guessing about their relationship, this is definitely a film for you.

With about half an hour to go, it seems the writer got bored with repeating the same stuff in a variety of different ways, and sends the plot off in a different, unexpected (and not exactly convincing) direction.

I didn't think this would be the sort of film I'd enjoy, and it isn't. But for the type of film it is, it's pretty decent. Well photographed, and the lead characters have oceans of time to do their acting stuff. In case anyone is labouring under the delusion I'm a film expert, I should point out that I thought I was watching Jeremy Irons in the lead role until the last 10 minutes of the film!

Vicky Krieps co-stars and does very well in all the long lingering scenes with Daniel, but has been overlooked for best actress, while Lesley Manville gets a surprising (for me) nomination for Best Supporting Actress, given that her character doesn't have much to do.
It's 2 and a quarter hours, but it felt a lot longer when I was watching it.
For what it's worth, I feel Daniel's performance is better than Gary Oldman's in Churchill.