MOVIE · 1999

Magnolia

Drama189 min

Over the course of a single day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, his younger wife, a devoted caretaker, a game-show host, a former child prodigy, and a lonely police officer become part of the same chain of chance encounters. Tom Cruise is the father's estranged son, now a swaggering public figure; John C. Reilly threads through the valley as the earnest cop whose routine night shifts turn unexpectedly personal. Paul Thomas Anderson builds the film as an interlocking Los Angeles mosaic, moving between parents and children, old wounds, public performances, and private collapses as separate lives start to rhyme.