There Will Be Blood Review

Bottom-Line: Despite Daniel Day-Lewis's stellar performance I would skip There Will Be Blood, at least until it releases to DVD and can be visually measured in small doses.

Be forewarned There Will Be Blood is a different kind of movie indeed.  This movie is a strange bit of film making.  Be forewarned.  And bad, poorly written, poorly paced, utterly boring, hard to follow, and yet very well acted by Daniel Day Lewis and company.  There Will Be Blood.

The Premise

There Will Be Blood was adapted from Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil! by Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia), who also took on directing duties.  The story takes place in the American west (California) at the turn of the last century as loner Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) prospects for silver.  He breaks his leg in an accident, but finds a vein of silver, and registers the mine, but inexplicably starts prospecting for oil instead.

My Viewpoint

First things first: I wanted to love There Will Be Blood. Really I did, because I love the acting acumen of Daniel Day Lewis; the man brings stark realism to whatever role he inhabits.  But There Will Be Blood is an unqualified bore!  And disjointed, off-center, patched together, and in the end, the movie made little sense.  The beginning played well, but then the movie jumps from Lewis's character prospecting for silver to suddenly prospecting for oil without a discernable explanation.

Cinematically, There Will Be Blood is a remarkable film, but beautifully landscapes do not a compelling movie make.  In Anderson's hands, this much ballyhooed movie is in my mind a rambling mess without a direction or purpose.  Despite Daniel Day-Lewis's stellar performance I would skip There Will Be Blood, at least until it releases to DVD and can be visually measured in small doses.