Review Roundup: Critics Weigh In On PHANTOM THREAD

Set in the glamour of 1950's post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock's life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love. With his latest film, Paul Thomas Anderson paints an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running. "Phantom Thread" is Paul Thomas Anderson's eighth movie, and his second collaboration with Daniel Day-Lewis.

Watch the Official Trailer here.

See what the critics had to say:

Anthony Lane, THE NEW YORKER: "The upshot is that "Phantom Thread," though expert and engrossing, is also cloistral and sickly, and I found myself fighting for fresh air. There are notable excursions, including an Alpine holiday where Reynolds gets to swathe himself in immaculate knitwear, plus a New Year's costume ball, in Chelsea, but the first is like a snowy stage set and the second is as writhingly oppressive as one of Fellini's Roman jamborees."

Owen Gleiberman, VARIETY: "The film's dilemma, as it happens, isn't nearly that spectacularly perverse. Reynolds comes under Alma's spell, and since he's a severely handsome and well-known designer, and she's an expatriate nobody waiting tables in a country hotel, it doesn't take higher math to see where this power imbalance is heading. Alma returns to London with Reynolds and becomes his new model and muse. He moves her into the bedroom upstairs - right next to his, as if conferring some great privilege, though it already sounds like he's talking about a birdcage."

David Edelstein, VULTURE: "Manville is, like her character, so in sync with Day-Lewis that she borders on self-effacing - until you see how keenly Cyril monitors her brother's every breath. Krieps is bewitchingly lucent, her face just masklike enough to make our sudden awareness of all her dark thoughts a shock. But the draw, of course, is Day-Lewis, who's no stranger to the notion of creating a sacred space in which to work. "

Todd McCarthy, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: "Astonishingly, the London-born Day-Lewis hasn't played an Englishman in a film since Stars and Bars in 1988, but he plays a consummate one here, a perfectionist whose image and role in society he has tailored with the same fastidiousness he applies to his work. With Alma he becomes playful at times but at others shuts her out; being preoccupied and impossibly self-centered are part of a persona that's been as immaculately crafted as his best fashion creations."

Richard Lawson, VANITY FAIR: "Daniel Day-Lewis, giving us one last blessing before he disappears into his version of retirement, plays Reynolds Woodcock, a sought-after high-end dress designer in 1950s London. Reynolds is exacting and frequently lost in indulgent distraction, wrapping himself up in his genius and expecting all those around him to be in his low orbit-to be called on and used whenever he is ready but to otherwise remain out of the way."

Rex Reed, OBSERVER: "P.T. Anderson's movies are never coherent enough to appeal to the mainstream, but this one is so ravishing and meticulous and exquisite that you have no difficulty ignoring its inherent lack of logic. It's not much of a vehicle to show off Mr.Day-Lewis' plangent talents, but the way he controls the film with an inner ennui that is positively three-dimensional makes for fascinating acting technique that rivets attention. There isn't much plot or action, either, and the conclusion is incongruous, but I liked Phantom Thread in spite of its flaws. "

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