Phantom Thread is worth all of its praise and more

Looking around at what’s been on offer at the cinema for these past couple of months, it seems that the only way to succeed is to be relevant. Everything has to be about something; I don’t mean in any sub textual sense because all films should do that, but in the sense that unless they’re about superheroes every film has to make a statement. Whether it’s Darkest Hour, or Get Out, or Dunkirk, or even Paddington 2, every film has to be accompanied by the great clunking fist of significance.

That’s one of the reasons Phantom Thread is such a triumph. It’s only significance is an attempt to reclaim classic storytelling in a film that celebrates classic Hollywood narrative. The highest compliment I can think of for this film is that it could have been made by Hitchcock in the mid-20th century rather than Paul Thomas Anderson in the first quarter of the 21^st century.

There is more than a touch of Hitchcock in this brooding drama about high fashion couturier Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day Lewis) who, even at the moment of his greatest success, frets over his failures and his impending mortality. His sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) packs him off to their country retreat to recharge his batteries. On the way he stops at a country hotel where he is served by Alma (Vicky Krieps), a waitress to whom he is strangely attracted.

He and Alma begin a curiously co-dependent relationship. She becomes his muse, but she is stronger-willed than his usual type. Protected by Cyril, who possibly sees that Alma is good for her brother, she attempts to exert some control over his life with unfortunate consequences.

To go back to my original point, Phantom Thread is not without its subtext. It’s a film about need and desire, as well as obsession and control. In many ways it’s a melancholy ode to the human condition. However, more than all of this, Phantom Thread seems to be a celebration of classic filmmaking.

There is more than a touch of Hitchcock about this film. The superb Lesley Manville as Cyril echoes the sinister Mrs Danvers in Rebecca (1940) but with a greater threat of devastating violence. The relationship between Reynolds and Alma meanwhile echoes that between Scottie and Madeleine in Vertigo (1958), a film with which Phantom Thread has much in common.

Like Hitchcock there is an enormous amount of restraint in this film. The obsessive Woodcock is apparently modelled on the Spanish couturier Balenciaga; Day Lewis apparently learned how to make a Balenciaga dress in preparation for the role. Unusually for a film set in the world of couture it takes a muted approach to its subject, especially when compared to something like Altman’s Pret-a-Porter (1994).

This is a film of superbly composed shots from Anderson, acting here as his own uncredited cinematographer, and editor Dylan Tichenor’s cutting is as smooth and seamless as one of Woodcock’s creations. The colour palette from production designer Mark Tildesley and the sound design from Christopher Scarabrioso are also crucial to the story. Phantom Thread is a celebration of the film maker’s art and from Anderson, who also wrote it, we get a genuine bespoke piece of cinema.

None of this would work however without some extraordinary performances. Lesley Manville quietly steals every scene she is in as the protective Cyril, while Day Lewis drifts through the film almost in a fugue state. His Reynolds Woodcock is in the world but not of the world as he tries to reconcile his obsession with his creativity. Newcomer Vicky Krieps may be the pick of the bunch; it would be easy to play this as a blushing ingenue, but her Alma has an inner steel. She and Woodcock are more alike than either of them might care to admit and Anderson does an excellent job of balancing the narrative between them.

In the end Phantom Thread is a film that haunts you; just as Woodcock is himself ‘haunted’. It is almost impossible to dismiss, scenes and moments creep back into the memory unbidden and, like any great piece of art, it forces you to think about it and reconsider it long after it has finished.

On Oscar nomination day last month there was something of a surprise when this film came away with six nominations. I think it deserves every one of them and the only thing that surprised me was that there weren’t more. I doubt you’ll see many films this year better than Phantom Thread.