The first half of The Master was amazing to watch to be perfectly honest.  Learning about the character of Quill and seeing his lonely ass interact with someone who genuinly cares about him is very interesting.  The performances by Phoenix and Hoffman help this relationship immensly.  However, the film slows down in the second half, especially when their relationship isn't under stress.  The movie does a bad job building up tension in between them, and the final moments of the movie feel slightly forced.  Quill as a character is extremely interesting however, but he's an exception in this movie.  Without Phoenix, his character, and his acting, this movie would be awful, but luckily he saves this movie from that fate.  I would recommend this movie for the acting alone, but the non-existent story and lack of tension almost pushes this movie down another point.