It takes a special sort of director to deliver a film that tells a full 10 years of story in 14 minutes without a word other than "oh no!" being said. This is a good start to Paul Thomas Anderson's vision of Upton Sinclair's novel Oil probably not surprisingly about an oil prospector at the turn of the 20th century.
Daniel Day Lewis stars as Daniel Plainview the prospector in question, a humble and hard working man whose initial discover of gold and then oil turns him into an ambitious and ruthless man. Daniel manages to juggle raising a child single handed and developing a business empire. Using his son H.W. as almost a gimmick offering the 10 year old as his business partner Daniel gains the trust and respect of many a community who trust his love of family and his plain talking manner, but things are to improve for this self made man, as the purchase of a ranch also earns him an ocean of oil beneath the surface, but good and bad luck come hand in hand for Daniel, and with tremendous gain so comes tremendous loss.
There Will Be Blood is an unusual movie, it's very lengthy and more the most part incredibly well served. I liked the way the story was going offering a great deal of potential; I could see giant story arch's firing off in all directions. I could see the development of a story involving
his son injured in an accident; I could see the trouble caused by choosing to stand up against the leader of a cult style church. And from the promising 45 minutes opening I was gripped at the edge of my seat waiting for all the wonderful things to happen.
Sadly of all the promise the movie showed, 90 minutes in the movie got up, coughed and then lumbered its way into a spiralling tale enough to put an insomniac asleep. What had gone so terribly wrong? I had suddenly gone from watching and loving a movie to hating a movie more than any other I had seen in some time. Anderson flicks around like an amateur chopping and changing aspects of the story almost seemingly to suit his mood; it becomes hard to separate from the reality to the fantasy.
The last hour of There Will Be Blood was nothing like its first, and there seemed nothing that could be done to elevate it back on track, and certainly for me I had lost it. I don't think I lost the plot because it had gone to some higher plain of intelligence beyond my vision. I lost the plot because the movies director and scriptwriters had lost track of the story they were delivering.
Daniel Day Lewis in my mind delivers a role the best I have ever seen from the performer, he is hunched up with slightly wizened characteristics. This is a role that that no other actor could deliver, and I really sincerely believe this; and believe me I am far from a Day Lewis fan, an actor I have felt that up to this point is incredibly overrated. His onscreen traveller H.W. played by the talented young actor Dillon Freasier whom I'm sure we will see much more of over the next year or so delivers a powerful role as the adult never having the chance to live the life of a child, while others play H.W. is working the oil rigs. What makes Freasier good though is not his role as the adult child, but his sudden turn to the youth he never felt when an explosion and subsequent head injury renders him deaf. Unable to communicate and seemingly losing the plot we see this young actor spiral downhill for the majority of the movie.
Paul Dano delivers a reasonably creepy performance as the church leader, a blatant fake who has a certain presence about him. However the lack of final scripting fails to give him the delivery the role deserves. Once he first appears as Paul he seems to dominate the movie, partly due to the alter ego of Eli that comes as part of the package.
I'm not sure what I was expecting from There Will Be Blood, I think I was expecting some sort of feud, almost like a western where Daniel Plainview has to fend of others trying to get his oil, which to some degree he does but in a strictly boardroom sense. There is in fact a distinct lack of blood in this movie; the three deaths featured in the movie two of which are incredibly understated do not deliver this promised blood.
I'm also annoyed by the movies score, its acompanying themes seem to consist of the same three or four musical bars pieced together to create something similar to music. It's themes annoying, and carry on for considerably longer than they should, during a scene involving a rig explosion its length actually starts to annoy more than anything else drawing attention away from the action.
I'm sure that some will find There Will Be Blood to be a masterpiece, but I'd have to ask what sort of person that is; while there is no doubt there are some Oscar winning performances and a promising first half the second portion is really quite pathetic, and I'm fully aware I was not the only person who had given up on this potential masterpiece. Anderson seems to be trying to deliver a movie of length over content, both his big successes Boogie Nights and Magnolia being fairly lengthy, maybe he hoped to replicate some of that success here by dragging the story out, who knows; I certainly know that this is not a movie I would be in any hurry to see ever again.
I made a comment on a previous review that this movie's title and that of No Country For Old Men should be swapped, I stand by that statement because this is an entirely inappropriate title for this movie. But let's see how it fairs at the Oscars with 8 nominations, it will be interesting to see if substance is a crucial point in receiving an award, and whether a couple of good performances can be enough to save by what would be a failure of a movie.
There Will Be Blood Opens in UK cinemas on the 15th February.
Spencer Hawken 01/08
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Great review, although I can't help but feel that criticising it for not having enough blood is besides the point! Nice idea about the switching of the titles though! Personally I thought this film was extraordinary, but like I said, excellent review all the same!
brereton66 05.02.2008 14:14
Have to say I quite fancy seeing this one.
avacarrdo 27.01.2008 23:17
Oh, what a letdown! You'd think that a movie that starts out so promisingly would be able to sustain it, but it appears not.
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![There Will Be Blood (2 disc Special Edition) [DVD] [2007]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/79293663.jpg "There Will Be Blood (2 disc Special Edition) [DVD] [2007]")
Jan 25th, 2008
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