Now, I won't be delving into too many plot specifics regarding Phantom Thread due to how entertaining it is to watch the various plot points unfurl in the movie itself but let's just establish the starting premise here: Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a hugely influential fashion designer whose number eccentricities in his personality & behavior are only outmatched by the number of high-profile clients his work attracts. One day, he manages to procure an infatuation with a waitress named Alma (Vicky Krieps), who agrees to go on a date with this man. It is on this first date that a romance begins to blossom between the two of them and the rest of the story unfolds from there.
Where Phantom Thread goes from there is thoroughly unpredictable in a delightful way. Paul Thomas Anderson has plopped his cast into exquisite looking costumes and sets that are typically reserved for subdued period piece dramas but here are used for some truly bonkers storytelling choices, most notably in making Reynolds Woodcock a realistic version of a type of character most movies like to laud as being a God among men. The eccentric white male genius with unorthodox behavior is a go-to figure for movies to use as a lead in inspirational cinema, sometimes to good results, sometimes to bad results, but it's a prominent archetype that's just begging for some lampooning and that's just what Paul Thomas Anderson does here.
Reynolds Woodcock has everything these type of characters usually have, right down to the tragic backstory that informs his career. It's easy to see Benedict Cumberbatch or turn of the century Russell Crowe playing this guy in a straightforward biopic that depicts him as a glorious figure who can inspire the masses, but here, Reynolds Woodcock is being viewed through the lens of Alma (whose basically the lead of the piece) and that means we get to see him as what he is: a weird & callous human being exhibiting easily recognizable pieces of bad behavior whose more in love with routines or dresses than the people around him. Instead of his worst tendencies being brushed off as "quirks", we get to see just how irritating it would be to live with this guy for years on end.
To play this kind of character, Daniel Day-Lewis has to play a completely different character from his last two roles and he does it excellently. It's easy to forget amidst all the hype that Daniel Day-Lewis is a performer who really does live up to all of that praise but one gets a reminder of just that with his work here as he removes even the slightest trace of Daniel Plainview or Abraham Lincoln for the part of Reynolds Woodcock. The word that comes immediately to mind when describing his performance here is "sassy", Woodcock always has a curt retort ready for anything that dares to interrupt the fragile balance of his life and Daniel Day-Lewis delivers these lines in an exceptionally funny manner. Even when he's not delivering dialogue though, Day-Lewis grabs your attention just from the sort of appropriately discomforting presence the actors is able to emanate that reinforces just how off-kilter this Reynolds Woodcock character is.
Vicky Kreips is the one who has to play off Day-Lewis for the majority of the movie and she's able to impressively hold her own when performing against this titan of an actor as she goes toe-to-toe with her outlandish significant other. Kreips takes a cue from Day-Lewis in managing to create a compelling performance even when she doesn't speak, the physical aspects of her performance are just as superb as how she delivers dialogue. Though Day-Lewis and Kreips are the two primary performers for much of the plot, Leslie Manville also leaves a mark in the pivotal role of Reynold Woodcock's sister, seemingly the one other person on the planet able to hold any sway over this controlling fashion designer.
It isn't just the actors who get their chance to deliver excellent work in Phantom Thread. The sound work is also remarkable and does a great job of accentuating both tension & humor, sometimes in the same moment! On a similar auditory note, Jonny Greenwood's score does a lot for the unique atmosphere of Phantom Thread with one recurring musical passage in particular doing wonders for concoting this tense ambiance that feels incredibly appropriate for these characters and their journey. The journey itself is one that may leave audiences divisive, but I encourage anyone to give it a shot. I found this to be a fantastically entertaining movie to watch unspool in front of me and maybe, just maybe, you'll end up feeling the same way.
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