There Will Be Blood

2007. Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds, Kevin J O'Connor and Dillon Freasier ●●●●●



With no sign of Everlasting Moments at cinemas in Birmingham I randomly chose PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood to review. It seems incredibly now, just 18 months later, that this film and No Country for Old Men became locked in a titanic battle for the 2007 Best Picture Oscar. In the end the Coen film took the prize, but in my opinion, the better film missed out.



The film, very loosely based on Upton Sinclair's Oil, concerns the decay of the soul of Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis), an oilman whose avarice overtakes all his other thoughts. The story follows him from mining silver alone to ending his life alone and bitter in his mansion via the adoption of a son of a deceased worker and a major struggle with a small church and it's charismatic preacher (Dano).

Of course a film which revolves around a single character requires a solid performance, which Day-Lewis delivers in spades. It's absolutely electrifying, you just can't keep your eyes off him. Every line is said with such vigour and certainty it's as if it's a documentary. Towards the end there is a tendency to waver on the line of cartoonish caricature, but thankfully Day-Lewis never crosses it.

Dano is effective as the young man of God, especially in the two key scenes he shares with Day-Lewis (the baptism and the bowling alley), but in his quieter moments he looks a little lost (the blessing of the new mine). Dillon Freasier and Russell Harvard both do fine work as the yound and adult versions of H.W. Plainview, Daniel's adopted son, I hope to see both of them build on these performances in the future, although there's nothing so far.

The cinematography by Robert Elswitt is excellent, the way natural light plays across the characters in different ways, the sun streaming through the church windows, the framing of the oilmen is beautiful and often moving. I was also struck by the movement of the camera, Anderson and Elswitt almost never let it be still, especially in the mid-shots when it often pans forward and back moving you towards or away from the action. It's a technique that often goes with the multi-character films Anderson made his name with but here it's equally effective.

Finally the score is beautiful, Johnny Greenwood's (adiohead) original pieces are compelling and the use of Brahms is overpowering.

This film is a masterpiece, if you haven't already seen it I urge you to rectify that as soon as possible.