Based on Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!”, There Will Be Blood tells the story of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a gold prospector who discovers oil in California in the late 1800s. As the initial scenes of the movie unfold, he assembles a team of drillers to help him build a small company to find more oil. An accident kills one of the crew and his orphaned son comes under Plainview’s care. The child, H. W. (Dillon Freasier), becomes integral to Plainview’s strategy for buying up tracts of cheap land from those that are unaware of its potential value. When a small-town preacher (Paul Dano) gets in the way of Plainview’s juggernaut of greed, all Hell breaks loose — both literally and figuratively.
There Will Be Blood is an immensely interesting movie. At least for the first two hours of its two-hour and thirty-eight minute running time. At about the two-hour mark, things begin to strain under the weight of a story that doesn’t know where to go or how to spin a climax out of it’s incredibly long wind-up. Characters other than Plainview come and go without much (or any) introduction and are disposed of with an equal lack of consideration. Only Plainview and Eli, the preacher, get any character development and Eli’s is minimal at best.
So what merits a four-star rating? Day-Lewis’ gargantuan performance is the reason. Daniel Plainview is a multi-faceted, incredibly complex character and Day-Lewis adds the right combination of enigma, humanity, and madness to each scene required to make the viewer wonder when (or if) the time bomb inside his head will go off. It’s unfortunate that the last half hour of the movie turns Plainview into a caricature. Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch-Drunk Love) also does a great job of creating a convincing turn-of-the-20th-century atmosphere. The cinematography and sets are magnificently sparse, echoing the emptiness of the land as well as the emptiness of Plainview’s soul.
There Will Be Blood was nominated for eight Academy Awards — winning two (Best Actor for Day-Lewis and Best Cinematography). Unfortunately, the movie — as good as it is — feels incomplete due to its unsatisfying conclusion and abrupt end. Had Anderson been allowed to spool another hour’s worth of film, I still think the movie would have ended just as badly. That being said, it remains worth seeing for the first two hours. It’s rare that I recommend a film based on its beginning and not its conclusion. That’s a testament to the incredible acting prowess of Daniel Day-Lewis.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
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