The Movie: Magnolia is a three hour long montage of little snippets of the lives of several people of varying ages and lifestyles, who are interconnected in some way or other. It's a rather dark film that explores a number of different angles on love, life, death, and regret... and regret... and regret. And the cycles that ruin our lives, and the things that happen that break that cycle.

The characters in this movie are often polar opposites of each other. On one hand there is Tom Cruise, a virile man whose "Seduce and Destroy" seminars teach men how to seduce women. On the other hand there is a bumbling police officer who hasn't been on a date in years. There's an old TV producer lying on his death bed, looking back on his life full of regret -- and a child on a quiz show who may just be beginning to stand up for himself so that he doesn't have to live a life of regret. And there's William H. Macy who plays a guy who I guess is one possible grown up version of that kid -- he was on this same show 30 years prior, and won a record amount of money... only to have the money stolen by his parents and today he's a nobody that's in debt. Of course, there are many other characters here... there's the suicidal young wife (Julianne Moore) of the dying producer who married for money, the womanizing host of the quiz show, his wife, and his drug addicted daughter, and the kid on the show's father who is also a fairly major character... and the frogs.

There isn't really a central plot I can summarize for you as there are a number of stories going on here as different relationships are formed, and all the while the gut wrenchingly sad songs of Aimee Mann are going on.

I gotta say, a lot of people didn't like this movie. What do I say about it? Well, it's long for sure, but it's quite beautiful. As I said, there's no central plot, and some people don't like that. There's also a few moments in the film that leave "reality"... and a lot of people don't like that. So what is it? I'd say it's a long and depressing, but beautiful film that I'm glad I saw, but I probably wouldn't want to sit through again -- once was enough for sure... but I'll probably buy the soundtrack!

The DVD: The anamorphic transfer of this film is perfect, with excellent shadows, great color, and all that. A beautiful transfer for a beautiful movie. The audio had an overall good sound quality to it, but the surround mix perhaps was not as full as it could have been.

Special features... well this is a two disc set, and although I only had the first disc with the movie on it, I do know some information about the other disc. First of all, the first disc has no documented special features on it, except for "color bars". But if you let the color bars keep playing, you will see an outtake reel. The second disc also has the same deal, but with a different outtake loop. It also has a 70 minute long documentary about the film, but I really don't know if I'd want to sit through that -- the movie itself is already long enough. There's a bunch of other stuff on that second disc, but perhaps what is more interesting is what isn't included.

Some fans are mad that there is no directors commentary, or "real" deleted scenes, but I suspect the director didn't really want those in there. Let it mean what it means to you, or something like that. I don't know.

Anyway, if you do like this movie, I'm sure you'll find enough on here to keep you happy.