Magnolia (1999)

Hi, today's film is Magnolia, which starts off really good, but then, well you'll see.

The movie consists of several plots happening all at the same time, and you're gonna need to pay attention to all the different stories. As we watch, we see how the characters are related to one another.

Ok, here comes the tangled web of plot.  Earl Partridge is dying of cancer and wants to see his son again, the one he abandoned as a child.  The child is now grown up and runs one of those scummy "harass women at night clubs so they'll sleep with you" seminars.  Meanwhile, a game show host is also dying of cancer.  He goes to see his daughter, but she screams and throws him out of the house.  The game show consists of kids challenging adults at a quiz/trivia show.  The child star knows lots of trivia, but is too pressured, especially by his dad, who uses him as a meal ticket.  Also, a former child quiz show star grows up to be a total loser.  The game show host's daughter is confronted by a nervous cop for a noise violation.  Later, he asks her out on a date.

I was really tempted to post a pic
of the "rain of frogs glyph" from World of Warcraft.

So, we see all these people as they interact with each other; and it's intriguing.  What will happen to them? Will they find happiness?  Then, it gets more and more dramatic.  Like, too dramatic.  Like, come on, this is too dramatic.  Then, you just know one of them is going to try to shoot themselves.  Because that is so cliche.  When it happens, I wasn't the least surprised, but then, it starts raining frogs.  This, itself, didn't shock me.  Because, throughout, there are a ton of references to Exodus 8:2, which basically talks about the plague of frogs.  But, to me, it felt like the movie was getting so dramatic with all these people, that they didn't know how to end it and just tacked on a weird frog rain ending there.

The worst part is that the movie was great up until the 2 hour mark.  I thought it was going to end there.  But, it just had to drag on for whole other hour.  I can't believe I stayed up for three hours to watch this with the stupidest ending I have ever seen.  I will give this film a 6/10 because the acting was good for the most part.