I was standing in the parking lot screaming "FUCKING RAIN OF FROGS!" after I saw it the first time.

I did the same thing after seeing The Doors. Although in my case I was trying to call down a curse on Oliver Stone.

After a few days of mulling, I decided I had to see it again, and I did, and it just clicked. And I do think it succeeds -- I'm not sure I could articulate exactly what it succeeds at, but the way it deals with chance and intersection and loneliness and the primal need that humans have to connect is just beautiful.

I saw the rain of frogs as evoking a biblical plague, which in my brain somehow made sense given the desperation of the characters' lives. Maybe the rain of frogs is connected with the prologue to show how sometimes we are the victims of events of bizarre probability.

The rain of frogs did seem cathartic for the characters, though.

Huh. I don't think I can articulate it either.

Sue--that's EXACTLY how I felt. I don't think it succeeds, but there are such wonderful, brilliant moments in it that it makes it worth watching.

I didn't know what to think when I saw it in the theater. Among other things, once the prologue was over, the movie started off feeling like the last ten minutes of regular movie, and never lost that feeling - just one big climax.

Though I have the DVD, I haven't been able to make myself sit down for the whole thing again. However, when I catch bits and pieces on cable, I can't stop watching for long stretches at a time, and I never seem to catch the same bits twice.

I don't know what PTA was thinking with Julianne Moore (I usually like her, but she was hella annoying here, delibarately so, I think), but Tom Cruise was perfect for the part he was playing.

I liked all four PTA movies, but I really need to see SIDNEY aka HARD EIGHT again, because it may be my favorite.

Plus without MAGNOLIA, we wouldn't have gotten "Respect the cruller, and tame the donut!"

"This is a thing that happens."

Narratively, I think the frogs are about having something happen to all of the characters that none of them can ignore. They are all forced to pay attention to something, which is exactly the wake-up call that most of them desperately need.

I saw the rain of frogs & the unison singing & the rapping kid as the underlying message of the movie -- that the need for connection is magical, primitive, and mostly shut out of modern culture until it unexpectedly bubbles out. That said, I don't think PTA was quite successful in getting this across, and I only came to this theory after watching the movie a third time. Still, it's my favorite of his movies -- although I liked Boogie Nights & Punch-Drunk Love, both had an unpleasant rawness (and mushy center) that I don't think I could ever watch again. Magnolia had enough artifice & mystery that I can stand it occasionally. Not that it's really deep or anything; it just wants to be.

EDIT - and, yeah, the usually subtle & charming Julianne Moore sucked donkeys in Magnolia.

I guess generally I'm not in the mood for its intensity.

To me, it felt like a good movie to have playing in the background on a loop, like a warm blanket of great filmmaking.

However, when I catch bits and pieces on cable, I can't stop watching for long stretches at a time, and I never seem to catch the same bits twice.

Like Frankenbuddha said. It's just mesmerizing.

And I do think it succeeds -- I'm not sure I could articulate exactly what it succeeds at, but the way it deals with chance and intersection and loneliness and the primal need that humans have to connect is just beautiful.

What I said last night was something like, "I'm sure it's about love and chance and forgiveness and redemption and all that and I don't even know whether it said anything original at all about those things, but just, wow."

I saw the rain of frogs as evoking a biblical plague, which in my brain somehow made sense given the desperation of the characters' lives. Maybe the rain of frogs is connected with the prologue to show how sometimes we are the victims of events of bizarre probability.

The rain of frogs did seem cathartic for the characters, though.

Tom, you nail it on both points. To me, the frogs were the embodiment of that element of chance, possibly from the hand of God or maybe not. PTA didn't actually know about the biblical connotation (he got the rain from a book by Charles Fort, says IMDb), but once he heard about it, he used it to his advantage. And also, yeah, catharsis. I mean, you've got all this shit going down on a human scale, and then fucking frogs are falling from the sky. How do you compete with that? How do you compare?

Narratively, I think the frogs are about having something happen to all of the characters that none of them can ignore. They are all forced to pay attention to something, which is exactly the wake-up call that most of them desperately need.

That's a nice interpretation as well. And like the sing-along, it connects all the characters once again. Which is why I loved the sing-along, because it was just this one song on this one night and every one of them was feeling it, needing it, and they're all alone yet they're not because somewhere out there, someone else is feeling the same thing.

On a different note, the movie reminded me of Happiness, which, incidentally, also starred Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Mr. Macy almost always breaks my heart when that's his intent, and Magnolia was no exception. Philip Seymour Hoffman, too.

Though PSH or no, I was exceedingly bored by Boogie Nights. It was a Lifetime movie with cock shots. Woohoo.

I thought the rain of critters was perfect for the moment, and could have explained why at the time, but that was years ago.

It had something to do with a reminder of things greater than our mundane lives, no matter how great and horrible our tragedy and trauma may seem.

the way it deals with chance and intersection and loneliness and the primal need that humans have to connect is just beautiful.

It had something to do with a reminder of things greater than our mundane lives, no matter how great and horrible our tragedy and trauma may seem.

What Plei and Jess said, and a little more. I think the rain of frogs is meant to symbolize that, despite the illusions we let ourselves believe, almost nothing in our lives is really within our control, and that life is dangerous, wonderful, strange, and all fucked up, all at the same time, eta: and all we can control is how we react to it.

And it was meant as a wake up call to all of them, though perhaps John C. Reilly and Melora Walters are the only ones who get the message, and even then we're not given total knowledge of that outcome either - only the knowledge that they kept trying.

My hatred of Tom Cruise means that I'll never see Magnolia but it sure does stir up some mighty emotions.

I think the rain of frogs is meant to symbolize that, despite the illusions we let ourselves believe, almost nothing in our lives is really within our control,

Huh, I thought almost the opposite. Well, not really, but I came at it from completely the other direction. None of the characters think they're in control of their lives. They're all basically living on inertia because they've resigned themselves to their ruts, where they're all desperately unhappy. They don't make choices because they don't see the point. And the rain of frogs is a drastic example of a "thing that happens" -- an event that is truly out of their hands. And by contrast, it becomes obvious very quickly that they do have choices. They have options. They can take them or not.