Phantom Thread Thread of Spoilers

[poorpete]

I have watched a movie called Phantom Thread, which is the last movie apparently that Daniel Day-Lewis ever acted in. It's an incredibly weird and creepy movie, that's all I can say, no spoilers can be given. He's a fashion designer character inspired supposedly by the real life Balenciaga. He finds... romance? The profound, fabulous soundtrack is done by some guitarist from Radiohead, Johnny ---. ? I wish I could discuss it in a way that allows spoilers to be given, because after watching this movie I was quite eager to hear what other people were saying about it and how they interpreted the ending. To my dismay I discovered that nobody seems to understand what happened in the movie even though it was pretty damn obvious. How could people possibly fail to understand?! Alas, I can say no more. It's as clear as it is disturbing. I feel like the key to the whole thing is his mother, and that's all I can say about that too! 9 out of 10 stars though!

Watched it -- so I feel the ending is what it is, a darkly romantic ending where they agree, to truly be happy he must be poisoned every time he gets too sour.

If you are here to tell me the last 10 minutes are a fantasy, her twisted view of how she's going to solve him, complete with him giving complete 180 degree reactions to things we know usually drive him nutty -- the pouring of water -- I'll happily accept that too. Just a few minutes prior he was showing how he's never going to change, then a scene later he's all in on Alma again but this time forever.

Didn't get to watch with the wife, but next time I'll get out a notebook and jot down all the helpful tips

[Phoebe]

Whew, thankful I'm not the only one who thought he was aware of what was going on at the end! It's nice that the director leaves open some possibilities that some of the scenes are fantasy rather than reality, but we are given many little clues that he knows what is going on even before he says so. I mean, even without the clues we know that he and sis both have extremely refined and acute senses, and that both of them probably can smell what's going on right from the start, at breakfast, even if they didn't have other evidence.

My assumption is that they have this relationship in part because he has mommy issues that contributed to both his sister and himself being the way they are. Alma literally means nourishing; she is both the vehicle for satisfying his physical hungers and, insofar as he sees her as some kind of avatar of his mother, his spiritual and maternal nourisher as well. Early on when he says that he feels they are very close to his mother, that's when he finds Alma (and is particularly hungry).
After she "nourishes" him with poison for the first time, and he falls and wrecks the dress, she finds and removes his secret message in the hem that has been protecting him despite constructing all these wedding dresses. Then they can get married, as Mom appears and seems to approve...? That was an incredible scene where Alma moves into her place to be the caretaker.

One thing I find puzzling is the significance of Alma's ethnicity. They call attention to it by suggesting it makes her suspicious, so you know it means something because everything in the movie is so carefully selected for a reason, but I'm not quite sure what that was all about.

People were apparently frustrated that Daniel Day-Lewis chose this as his exit vehicle but I thought he was amazing. The actress who plays the sister is also a long time favorite from other things, just wonderful. It leaves us all wondering what little, ultimately harmless things we can do to make our husbands more tractable? Lol, be careful about watching it with your wife! She might get ideas and there might be ghostly forces giving her power.