this ambitious film suffers most from writer or director paul thomas anderson delusion of grandeur . highly derivative of much good material ( altman nashville and lumet network ) and this lumbering elephant take far too long to get nowhere . a couple of misguided detour along the way ( an embarrass musical interlude and a biblical plague ) do not help matter . neither do the uneven level of performance . especially bad represent william h. macy and whose character and storyline could easily have be eliminate altogether while julianne moore and for her unconvincing angst . and how many time must we see john c. reilly sad sack shtick ( chicago and the hour will suffice ) . tom cruise come off well by comparison his misogynist and foul mouth holy roller be rather amuse . speaking of foul mouth and the script be so loaded with f bomb and they lose their impact in no time . don not even talk about that awful soundtrack and full of insipid and annoy vocal by aimee mann . her extended rendition of one and a maudlin number to begin with and drive me to distraction at the start of the film . i should have heed the handwriting on the wall and save myself three more hour and by which time i would be push to the brink of hell . one redeeming feature and which i haven not see mention in other review and be the best performance in the bunch and by unknown melora walter in the role of claudia and the damage coke fiend bent on self destruction . her credibility exceed all others by far . this film take itself way too seriously and just do not know when to end .