A collection of stories. Review on Magnolia Movie

Magnolia is a brilliant depiction of several subplots interwoven into one main story. Their meeting on a chat show. It looks like the choices offered in life as the poet Robert Frost muses. Except here the coincidences appear starkly selected by the director. What I will tell you is just a subplot as there is too much interest in the story and speculation too regarding whether it is a true story.  Mind you, there are different plotlines here with each of the nine characters having a story of their own - meaning 9 different subplots weaved into one story of the meeting on the faithful day where they attend a gameshow called What do Kids Know?

I mean it is easier to cover one complete subplot than cover bits and parts of different subplots, so I am covering just one part of the 3 hour long movie. And don’t yawn, each time I yawned, I missed a few dialogues and had to rewind the scene... ;(

To list the complete story would be an ‘awesome’ task (Incidentally, that was one word my daughter learnt easily ;)) and I believe beyond my nominal capacities and space constraints.  Below is the real life narration which has found its way into the subplot of the movie.

Twas a suicide never meant to be a murder.  How often does one come across a story where one is involved in killing? Would it be suicide if I jumped off a cliff? Or would it be murder? Not by suicide, but murder - meaning triggering someone else to perform the act for you. There are no definitions actually when you consider the real life inspiration for the movie Magnolia.The below evidence was presented during a  real life demonstration by Dr. Don Harper Mills.

‘On March 23, 1994 a medical officer examined the body of Ronald Opus a man who reportedly committed suicide. He had jumped down from the top of a 10 storey building to commit suicide and left a note to this effect. As he fell past the 9th floor, he was shot by a handgun, which killed him instantly before he could complete the suicide. An interesting twist is that a safety net had been spread around the 8th floor for construction workers which would have prevented the suicide of Mr. Opus. So in effect, it would have been a failed suicide attempt.

‘Ordinarily a person who attempts suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide.The fact that Mr Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.’

Now who used the shotgun? They found the shotgun was used by an elderly couple during an argument. The husband usually took the shotgun and pointed it at his wife as he usually did in an argument. Fortunately for the old man who pulled the trigger, he missed his wife and the bullet lay rest on Mr. Opus skull.

‘When one intends to kill a subject “A” but kills subject “B’ by mistake one is guilty of murder of subject “B”’ though the tenure can be lessened as it was accidental.’

When confronted with the murder charge, the old man stated that it was his habit to point the blank gun at his wife everytime they had an argument. In fact they insisted that it was an empty shotgun when he pulled the trigger.

‘Therefore the killing of Mr Opus was an unfortunate accident; that is, the gun had been accidently loaded’

It was a quirk of fate that one of the witnesses close to the deceased reported that he had seen the couple’s son load the shotgun knowing fully well that his dad would point it at his mother during their frequent arguments.

In effect, a murderer is one who murders anyone with the intent or aim of killing/creating bodily harm.

The son was guilty of murder even though he did not pull the trigger since he had set in motion an action to kill another. The son is now guilty of murder.

The son? None other than Mr. Ronald Opus himself! He was frustrated at the lack of any quarrels between the couple (his parents) and jumped off the building only to be shot by the bullet never intended for him. Lo! The son had engineered his own murder!’

An amazing illustrative story to convey his point made its way into popular media and is a modified subplot weaved into the movie. I seriously feel it would have been a classic court movie if the story was made into a movie by itself. Part of the story has lost its meaning as the director attempts to portray the other subplots too.

Definitely a must watch movie as it is easily one movie you would like to watch, mull over and watch again…  I will skip the character skillsets as there are too many of them.

At times you feel that the narration could have been better if the focus had been reduced to a lesser number of characters. Sometimes you get the feel that justice is not done to any of the characters, except for the cop. Regardless, I did enjoy the subplots. A unique concept as is some of those Urban legend tales where you gather around the fire to relate your experiences. Julianne Moore as the repenting wife is average. Especially if you have seen the movie, The Forgotten, you notice that she has a limited range to her skills.  John Reilly as the cop seeking a partner is good and Jeremy Blackman as the winner of the show is the rebellious kind.

Cast - Julianne Moore, Jason Robards, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Luis Guzmán, Philip Baker Hall, April Grace, Ricky Jay, Orlando Jones, William H. Macy, Alfred Molina, Jeremy Blackman, Michael Murphy, John C. Reilly, Melinda Dillon, Melora Walters, Michael Bowen, Thomas Jane and Felicity Huffman.

Runtime -188 minutes ( > 3 hours!?!) Cast trivia source -imdb.com