‘There Will Be Blood’

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Staring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano

158 Minutes

Rated R

3 out of 5 stars

Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) isn’t established through dialogue. He is a shady, manipulative businessman interested only in the bottom line, and a precious few of his words contain any truth.

Instead of listening to his voice, watch his eyes. In the drama ‘There Will Be Blood,’ Day-Lewis embodies his character completely; you can see his character’s contempt for the people around him in his eyes.

Day-Lewis’ powerful performance overshadows the rest of Paul Thomas Anderson’s dark adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel ‘Oil!’

Anderson chose to portray the passage of time with excruciatingly long fades that often leave ghosts of the previous scene long after the action has continued. The film spends nearly 30 minutes of its 158-minute running time on an entirely self-contained side plot concerning Plainview’s (maybe) half-brother. It’s interesting, but not entirely necessary, and the detour hurts the film’s focus.

In addition, the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. It’s not that the ending was difficult, or too much of a twist, it just didn’t seem to fit the characters or the conflict that the film had set up.

The film does have other strengths that keep it from being purely a performance showcase for Day-Lewis. The most notable standout is Paul Dano’s eerie performance as a pimple-faced prophet Eli Sunday.

Nevertheless, ‘There Will Be Blood’ is worth watching for Day-Lewis’ performance alone. The rest of the movie feels like an afterthought.

Published on January 24, 2008 at 12:00 pm