Ronald Thompson

I feel bad criticizing what this witer/director probably feels is their magnum opus. He obviously put a lot of heart and soul into this but at the end of the day it's just a bad movie. It had a lot of potential. But some creative decisions undermined the performance of the actors which was an exceptional ensemble cast and they did great work. Otherwise I would have rated this one star. The acting deserves a star. But even great acting can't save a movie. One example is the amateurish use of musical score. A sequence of scenes set to tension building score except the scenes weren't building any kind of tension and of course, at the end, there was no pay off. No climax. So the use of it felt extremely contrived and unnecessary. Moreover, it was as loud as, if not louder than the dialogue. Just let the actors act. Their performance was lost behind the music in a weak attempt to make to make the scenes more than that what they were. The irony is, the scenes would have been more impactful without it. The director obviously likes directing to music which is probably why he mostly direct music videos now. And then came the frogs.  I understand there is meant to be some sort of deep biblical reference related to the stories being told, but the real issue I have with it is it presents in the 3rd act a weird alternate reality than what what we've come to assume are the reality guidelines for the film.  For example, when watching Harry Potter or Lord of the rings you know right away that things that aren't possible in our reality can occur in this one.  We are not suddenly surprised with magic in third act.  If Magnolia had done something in the opening act that was absurd then I would understand this is a different sort of reality and it would be easier to accept the frogs.  But instead, they kept it very real right down to the detail of a white cop forcing his way into a black person's home and cuffing her.   Had he apologized and left I would be like, okay, this is not based in our reality.