Review: There Will Be Blood (Grade C)

Director Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film "There Will Be Blood" has already been nominated for all kinds of awards and is a fixture on most top 10 lists of the year, so it appears I'm in the minority when I say I didn't like the film.

Sure, Daniel Day-Lewis is exceptional in the Howard Hughes meets William Randolph Hearst powerhouse role, but beyond that?? The problem with this film is almost as complicated as the way it is told. Let me explain.

Day-Lewis stars as Daniel Plainview, an oddity of a man who starts the film in 1898 as a silver and gold miner but quickly turns to oil. The first fifteen minutes or so has almost no dialogue as we watch Daniel injure himself in a mining accident and then turn his attention inexplicably to oil drilling. After a drilling accident claims the life of one of his men, Daniel finds himself responsible for the young baby of his employee. Jumping ahead 10 years we see that Daniel has become a successful oil man that now takes his young son along with him as he tries to buy up land from the unsuspecting populace so he can drill for oil. What should have been a fascinating character study of a deeply conflicted and coldhearted man instead leaves me cold as I would have loved to see what made Daniel tick, instead we just see his double dealings with no clear insight of what made him the man he is.

To make matters worse, Daniel is surrounded by a lackluster and equally unfeeling, bland group of characters that include his son (Dillon Freasier) and his right man Fletcher (Cirian Hines). The only interesting and complex character that pops up is the local self-proclaimed prophet and religious nut Eli Sunday (played with gusto by Paul Dano.) As Daniel's only adversary, Eli not so subtly hides behind the veil of religion to further his own end. Daniel seems to be the only one in town who sees Eli for who he actually is, a charlatan. The movie was very predictable as you could see plot developments coming a mile away. Such things like a fake brother showing up to con Daniel and Daniel turning on his adopted son.

The movie itself is very fragmented and technically it wasn't very good. Many of the shots were long and devoid of any color. I suppose it was a conscious choice to drain the color out of it to give it more of a dirty feeling but instead of it being a sweeping vision contrasted by unlikable characters, it just looked bland and uninteresting. But my major pet peeve was the score. Not only was it way too loud and distracting but it didn't fit with the images or even the genre of film. It was more like horror or thriller music and it was just plain awful. Imagine Daniel Day-Lewis walking with his son to the oil well and wait, here comes the music right out of the "Shining", I was like what the hell??
But ultimately this was Daniel Day-Lewis' film and he does not disappoint. He has always been a great method actor and even though I have never really been a fan of his, he WAS this character. He was so believable and downright real it was scary. I actually felt his pain when in later years he moved around so stiffly that my joints ached just watching him. He was a one man tour-de-force. Paul Dano has a future playing power hungry and mad evangelicals if he chooses as the creepiness was actually oozing out of his pores. The best scene in the film was at the end with the final showdown between Daniel and Eli, it was played so well it actually was funny in it's grotesqueness.

In my opinion, director Paul Thomas Anderson peaked with "Boogie Nights" and now makes movies so fragmented and sterile that it seems like he's not having any fun. It's okay to be serious filmmaker but c'mon Paul, lighten up a bit.

In conclusion, this male dominated piece of pointless filmmaking should not be held up in high regard because that will only stoke Anderson to keep making trash like this. The ONLY reason this film should be seen is for Daniel Day-Lewis' magnetic and mesmerizing performance and that my friends is the only reason this film didn't get an "F" in my book.

Musings Grade: C

-- Janaki Cedanna

All images © 2007 Paramount Vantage