Q. Re your Great Movie review of "Magnolia," a favorite of mine. Have you and your readers noticed not one, but multiple Exodus 8:2 references in the movie? Look at the ropes on the top of the building before the man jumps at the beginning, they are in the form of an 8:2. This, along with subtle frog visuals (Frogger video game in bar) are scattered all throughout.
Patrick Pendergast, Portland, Ore.

A. Not to mention actual frogs falling from the skies. Yes, the references of Exodus 8:2 in "Magnolia" are well-known, but to my knowledge, you're the first to notice the ropes on top the building. Re-reading the biblical passage, I find it funny what a slow learner the Pharaoh is. Reminds me of Boss Gettys on Citizen Kane: "He's going to need more than one lesson. And he's going to get more than one lesson."

Jeff Ignatius has a good explanation for the frogs at his blog culturesnob.com: "'Magnolia' has but one devout character -- police officer Jim Kurring -- and the script implicitly mocks him as a simpleton whose piety seems contingent on favorable treatment from God. When he loses his gun, he thinks the Lord has abandoned him and begs for help. Kurring is good-hearted but not rigorous in his faith.

"And the movie is populated with lost, lonely people. Addicts, adulterers, misogynists. Greedy, mean, egocentric. Friendless, pathetic, stunted. They're miserable, and many of them are wicked to boot. These characters are so far gone that only something nearly miraculous could awaken them from their moral and spiritual slumber. God's weapon of choice? Frogs."