There Will Be Blood
Posted by martinteller on June 29, 2008
I finally got around to this. I know it would be impossible for this film to live up to the massive amounts of hype it’s received, and I tried to keep that in mind. Even compensating for that, I was still a bit disappointed. It’s a good movie. A very good movie. But I don’t think this is a world-changing film or anything. It’s just not a mind-blowing movie, not really on any level I can think of. Perhaps our expectations for Hollywood have been reduced so much that anything above the level of Boat Trip gets hailed as the next Citizen Kane. It is a compelling story, centered around a memorable character, and Anderson has a fantastic sense of timing and composition. The score is unusual, often reminiscent of the Ligeti music that Kubrick used, very haunting even if it occasionally calls too much attention to itself. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a great performance (though not quite the masterpiece it’s been praised as). I definitely wanted to see what he would say or do next. I thought the character of Eli was far too blunt. (And what the fuck is wrong with Paul Dano’s face? He’s got really high cheekbones or something, he looks like a woman.) And the ending is far too broad… a cheap and showy gesture. Rating: 8
