The first half of this movie kind of bored me. The stiff upper lip London couture house of Woodcock is the most banal setting I can possibly imagine, but Paul Thomas Anderson is working from the beginning to undermine all of this setup.

I was super annoyed bu the man child played by Daniel Day-Lewis, but the twisted deconstruction and unraveling of this character is done in a most unexpected way. My opinion of the film changed drastically about 3/4 of the way through.

People have taken many different things from the supposed commentary of the film on relationships and the power struggle that exists in relationships in general, but I tried to set this aside and see it as a unique set of circumstances that only works for these characters. I started to enjoy the film more when I did this.

Technically, the film is a marvel and I think PTA deserves his first Oscar, especially since he wrote and directed this film, and served as cinematographer too. Quite impressive.