Judging There Will Be Blood by the Jam Scale is pointless. It’s a period piece set in the early 1900s so to fault the film for lacking diversity is inappropriate. So let’s just jump ahead.

There Will Be Blood might as well have been called Daniel Day Lewis vs Paul Dano. Daniel Day Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a fairly unpleasant oil baron intent on drilling in a little frontier town. Paul Dano, who you might recognize as the silent brother from Little Miss Sunshine, plays an equally unpleasant preacher, Eli Sunday, intent on exploiting the situation to get much money as he can from Plainview for his church. There are other characters like Plainview’s young partner and adopted son, H.W., who accompanies Plainview on every deal, but really, it’s Plainview vs Sunday all the way.

It’s no surprise that Daniel Day Lewis is up for Best Actor tomorrow night. He completely embodies the character of a driven, egotistical, and self destructive oil baron. One of his most powerful performances to date. Paul Dano is also superb as the manipulative preacher. The two of them play very well off each other and I’m sure this will lead to good things for Dano.

The film does an excellent job of drawing you in from the very start. The first few minutes are spent with Daniel Plainview in a dark well as he digs all by his lonesome for silver. The first few lines of dialog occur eleven minutes in, but by then, we’re already drawn to Plainview.

The crazy thing is that though Plainview is a horrible man who is impossible for anyone to relate to, I found myself rooting for him in his quest to exploit the backwater frontier town. There’s virtually nothing redeeming about his character. No moments of revelation, no great heroic turn, no indication of any regret or humility or growth. He is an oil man to the end, driven, exploitive, egotistical, maniacal, and I just couldn’t help but cheer him on in the horrific final scene.

Though the title of the film evokes images of crimson red flowing like a river over hill and dale, the actual violent moments are few and far between giving them far greater impact. The cinematography is superb. The sweeping landscapes, the gritty wells, the set pieces, every visual sucks you into the period. However, it’s two and a half hours long. And to be perfectly honest, it feels like two and a half hours long. The visuals make it very easy to put yourself back in that time period. But eventually, the mystique wears off. And though Daniel Day Lewis is completely enthralling and Paul Dano draws you in and repells you at the same time, I found myself looking at my watch. There’s only so much intensity I can take in one sitting and two and a half hours of it is well beyond my limit. It’s not a bad movie, far from it. But it’s a bit much to take all at once.

Overall, it was quite enjoyable. Intense, but worth a full price ticket. Just make sure you have three hours to kill. I’m almost certain Daniel Day Lewis will walk away with the Oscar tomorrow. And I wouldn’t be surprised if There Will Be Blood beats out the competition.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 12:22 am and is filed under Movies, Jam Scale Reviews, Indy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.