Venice: 'The Master' And Joaquin Phoenix Draw Raves, But Pic Is Hard Nut To Crack For Some; Trailer Scenes Missing

A Venice audience lined up starting at about 8am today to catch the first press screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. The packed house was hushed throughout the entirety of the film with only a handful of walkouts. Although immediate rection following the screening was enormously positive, applause when the credits rolled was muted. After sitting through 2 hours of a gorgeous, yet emotionally grueling and difficult to decipher picture, folks say they're still parsing the movie. As one industryite and, self-professed fan of Anderson's work, said to me this morning, 'I would have preferred if it moved from point A to point B, not because I'm illiterate about film or need signposts along the way, but it seems to keep circling around.' An across the board consensus, however, is that Joaquin Phoenix is a lock for a best actor Oscar nomination and, barring any other exceptionally standout performances this year, a win. His portrayal of a disturbed World War II veteran Navy man is disturbing itself for the masterful way he embodies such an enigmatic character.

Anderson is known for operatic tales, whether set against the backdrop of the porn industry, the San Fernando Valley during a frog storm or the Southern California oil boom. But this one will be a tougher sell to audiences not used to the director's work. The movie has been regarded as a thinly-veiled treatise on Scientology and someone who's not heard all of the Scientology talk before seeing the film would immediately recognize references to it. Still, one person this morning told me they felt Philip Seymour Hoffman's Lancaster Dodd, aka The Master, resembled a snake-oil salesman more than L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. Curiously, a scene that was part of one of the original trailers for The Master in which Phoenix's Freddie Quell screams at Dodd, 'I know you're trying to calm me down, but just say something that's true!' was not in the version screened in Venice this morning. Nor was a scene in which Quell is being questioned about 'an incident.'

The film focuses largely on Phoenix's shell-shocked, alcoholic and violence prone character ' though one suspects he was shell-shocked long before the war. He stumbles across Philip Seymour Hoffman's Lancaster Dodd, aka The Master, the affable if ominous leader of 'The Cause,' who takes Quell under his wing and begins to 'process' him. The pair engages in a pas-de-deux throughout the lush film almost erasing every other player ' save Amy Adams who is compelling when on screen. The Weinstein Co releases The Master Sept 14 in the U.S. and sneak screenings around the country have resulted in largely glowing reviews.