 Perception is of the utmost importance in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread. Our self-perception, how others perceive us, and perhaps most importantly, how we think others perceive us. For example, the character of Barbara Rose is someone who has no self-confidence and is able to see through the facade that others put up. She is an inherently weak person and allows herself to become the victim. Despite having money and despite trying to make up for her poor self-image through buying one of Reynolds' dresses, she is unable to see any good in herself. Reynolds is also inherently weak. He needs constant supervision and constant care. He is good at one thing, and his entire self-image and self-perception is wrapped up in how others view his dresses. His sister, Cyril, manages the business, manages his day, and she even manages his personal relationships. All that he needs to worry about is the dressmaking, and this is something that stems from his past trauma. The one thing that he is good at comes at the cost of real emotional pain, as he remembers his mother. He puts on a front, one of confidence and power. He loves how others appreciate his work, but he also knows that the biggest reason why is because of appearances. When he meets Alma, she is immediately able to see through this facade. In many ways, she sees herself in him and he sees himself in her. What draws him to her isn't her beauty, it's the mistake that she makes. He sees the humanity in her, it's her imperfections that he is drawn to, and while everyone else may try to hide these, she embraces them. She has a love of self that allows her to accept her flaws, just as Reynolds does. When they meet for the first time, his love is blatantly obvious. He first tests her to make sure that she can support him. After she passes, so to speak, he shows off his worth by making a dress for her, something he does out of passion, not for financial gain. Alma sees the good in him, she sees that he needs someone, but that he isn't able to put this into words. She sees his weaknesses and how uncomfortable he is, and giving her caring nature chooses to show him the love that she knows that he needs. When they get back to London, he falls back into his cyclical traits. He needs someone to break him out, which is the reason that he is so drawn to Alma. He thinks that she can change his life, but he doesn't make it easy. The imperfections that he is drawn to simultaneously annoy him. They move him out of his comfort zone, and he needs to choose either his relationship with Alma or his passion of dressmaking. He chooses the latter, and it is up to Alma to make him choose her. She knows that in order for him to find happiness, he needs to break his patterns. Early on, Cyril tells Alma that he doesn't like butter. Despite that, Alma tries to make Reynolds like what she wants, but he refuses to change his ways organically. As I think you know Alma, I prefer my asparagus with oil and salt. Knowing this, you've prepared the asparagus with butter. She eventually finds success through poisoning him, making him weak, stripping him away from the persona that he uses to hide from the world. We see her do this twice, but it would be safe to assume that she has been doing this regularly throughout the entire movie. This allows her to have the power that she needs to support him. Every good moment in their relationship comes directly from her giving care to him. Even their first night together started with her bringing him food as his waitress. He berates and emotionally abuses her to break her down. While down, she tries to regain the power by poisoning him, making him physically weak. It's only when the two are at their most vulnerable are they happy together. It's a relationship driven by abuse and negativity, yet the result is something positive. It begs the question, is it okay to do something negative if it means in the long run something positive comes from it? The two both agree to live in this constant cycle of negativity. By the end of the film, Reynolds is more than willing to eat the omelette, even though he knows it'll make him sick because he knows that Alma will be there to care for him. It's also worth pointing out that he is more than willing to eat the omelette despite the butter. Alma was able to make him live the way that she wants him to. Cyril knows all that is going on, but she also knows that for the first time, Reynolds is happy. Alma is bringing his life out of chaos and providing the care and support that he always needed. In my video discussing Paul Thomas Anderson's entire filmography, I spoke about the importance of taking control of your own life, venturing out on your own and becoming your own master. Reynolds is unable to do this, much like many of Anderson's other protagonists, he must turn to the care of someone else. His life only functions when he is being taken care of, but Alma is able to successfully become the master of not only her life, but also over Reynolds. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed. Phantom Thread is wonderful, PTA has made so many great movies and it's hard stacked ranking them, but this is definitely towards the top. I feel like this is his most Kubrickian film yet, there were some shots that felt like they were taken right out of a Clockwork Orange, but I feel like the movie most closely aligns itself with Barry Lyndon. And like Barry Lyndon, it probably won't be the film that draws in many fans, but instead it will be one that highlights his mastery of the craft and how great he is with character dynamics and just so much of what he does right is shown off in this movie. Anyway, if you're new here make sure you hit that subscribe button, I have a new video going up every Saturday. Until then I put a link to my video on PTA and his overarching struggle of his characters which covers all the films except for this one. So please check that out if you're interested and I will see you next week. Thanks for watching.