MAGNOLIA — ***1/2 — John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Melora Walters, Philip Baker Hall, Julianne Moore, Jason Robards, Jeremy Blackman, Melinda Dillon, Emmanuel Johnson; rated R (profanity, vulgarity, drug use, violence, sex, nudity, racial epithets); Carmike Ritz 15 Theaters; Cinemark Jordan Landing Theaters; Loews Cineplex Broadway Centre and South Towne Center Cinemas.

"Magnolia" is one big, sprawling, three-hour cinematic jigsaw puzzle.

What that means is that once viewers have put the pieces of this mosaic together, they may not have everything that is revealed. Or in some cases, they may not be able to piece it together at all.

However, there are handsome rewards for those who try — this is one of the oddest, yet emotionally richest and most exhilarating motion-picture experiences to come our way in quite some time.

That's not to say that "Magnolia" doesn't have its share of infuriating, self-indulgent moments. At times it seems downright leaden and rambling — with one particularly lengthy sequence that could be trimmed back drastically or snipped out altogether. And the film's reliance on foul language and crudities will surely offend some.

But that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, considering that "Magnolia" comes from the sometimes-too-ambitious filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, who brought us the similarly loved and hated "Boogie Nights."

For this film, he's actually going under the monicker P.T. Anderson, which reflects how much of a three-ring circus is going on. The film keeps as many as nine different story lines going at one time, though they all eventually tie into one another at the end.

Probably the film's most talked about subplot involves Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise), a sexual seduction guru who sells "how-to" tapes to lonely males. Unbeknownst to Frank, his estranged father, television producer Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is suffering from terminal cancer.

Meanwhile Earl's young trophy wife, Linda (Julianne Moore), is trying to cope with the guilt of numerous affairs, and his nurse is busy trying to get Frank on the phone to talk with his dying father.

Then there's Jim Kurren (John C. Reilly), an L.A. cop who becomes smitten with Claudia Wilson Gator (Melora Walters), a drug-addicted young woman who is also estranged from her father, a famous game-show host named Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall).

If that's not enough, the film also features a young game-show contestant, Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman), with an on-air crisis, and a former game-show whiz kid, Donnie Smith (William H. Macy), who's fallen on hard times.