Movies: There Will be Blood

I'm writing this just as the Oscars are about to start, and I'm going to jump on the DDL band wagon. If they gave an Oscar for best actor in a movie ever I would have to give my vote to Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. The hype is true. His performance is amazing. The movie, however, is not and it is a testament to DDL's remarkable ability that he can lift a dark, one-dimensional movie above obscurity.

The movie follows a prospector in the late 19th century, from gold digger to accomplished and destructive oil-man. At 158 minutes, Day-Lewis is in all but one scene. This makes his performance all the more impressive, but it does limit the story to his perspective. This is where the movie fails to make the transition to epic. There are intriguing character aspects that are begging to be developed, namely Paul Dano's freaky preacher, but they are only teasers. The movie is about DDL's Plainview, and all others are interlopers, who provide various purpose but no connection.

I found it at times gripping but mostly slow-moving. There are a number of movies that I feel I must get around to see, but never seem able to make the commitment. I believe that There Will be Blood is a movie that I would never have endured if I was watching it on home on DVD - I would have found myself scanning or painting my nails - or blogging. Watching it in a movie theatre is the only way to see this movie, because it is worth watching, even for Day-Lewis' performance alone.

At the risk of spoiling the plot, I'd be interested to know if anyone who saw the movie was confused with the Paul/Eli depiction. I believed that they were the same person, suffering from split personality. But apparently the director confirmed that they were twins. This disappointed me as I found it much more interesting to think that Eli was abhorring the traitor within himself, and it made his shortcomings all the more savoury. Feel free to disagree