Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)

As a director, Anderson could not be called much more profilic than his leading man here, Daniel Day-Lewis, at least over the last twenty years of the actor's career. But normally it matters little when each film with them behind is an event to be savoured. So it's frustrating that this is not quite a brilliant swan song for Day-Lewis. There's nothing wrong with his performance as a fashion designer in 1950s London, as studied and driven as ever, or that of the support either, with Lesley Manville as his acerbic sister and Vicky Krieps as his young muse, who becomes increasingly obsessed with holding onto the waspish and egocentric artist. But the Hitchcockian/Gothically-tinged tone feels uncertain and when it reaches its denouement, it has already played all its cards. I can understand the ambition here, and it is full of sumptuous detail, but I'm just not quite convinced that it knows what point it wants to make.

6/10