Phantom Thread is a 2017 drama about a designer dressmaker in London in the 1950s and his dysfunctional relationship with his wife Alma.
2 out of 10 stars. I honestly call this barely watchable. It’s a waste of two hours, very slow and boring.
Reynolds Woodcock is a famous dress designer in London in the 1950s. He’s a confirmed bachelor in about his 50s and has a series of relationships with women who he eventually tires of. He’s never been in love. When he tires of a woman, his sister Cyril gets rid of them. Cyril runs his business and Reynolds, who is OCD, designs the dresses.
After ditching his most recent lover, Reynolds goes to the country and meets a waitress named Alma. They become lovers and he joins her house, the House of Woodcock. She sews, cooks, and does whatever needs to be done in the house while sleeping with Reynolds at night. He is very particular, demanding absolute silence most of the time, but Alma adjusts easily making her a friend to Cyril.
When Reynolds eventually tires of Alma and decides to get rid of her, she takes a different approach than his previous lovers, she poisons him with poisonous mushrooms. She nurses him back to health and he falls in love with her. He even marries her. Then he begins to tire of her again and she poisons him once again, only this time she tells him. He eats the poisoned mushrooms anyway, smiles at her, and asks her to call the doctor “just in case”. This becomes the pattern of their marriage.
At the end we see them happily married with a child and Cyril babysits while they go dancing. But this is a dangerously creepy relationship.
2 out of 10 stars. Why make a film like this?
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