There Will Be Blood (2007) (nat)

I waited awhile to write about this one. Joel and I actually saw it Thursday night.

Anyway, it's good points first. Daniel Day-Lewis acts his ass off and makes it look effortless. Especially in the last scene of the film with Eli. He's haunting. Quite a bit of the movie is beautifully and interestingly shot. The movie kept at least a little part of my interest the whole time.

Ok, now for the less-than-favorable points. I don't dislike the movie--that's an important point--but I have concerns about it, especially since it's getting such rave reviews. It's a long film (158 minutes) and it drags a bit.

First, the brother, Paul Sunday, who first tells Daniel about the oil on the Sunday ranch and in the surrounding areas, just disappears. He never makes another appearance and is only mentioned at about the midpoint of the movie and then again at the end. That's not enough to have a character in the film. There is no explanation of why this brother told Daniel about the oil, why he and Eli have such a bitter relationship, why the brother has left the family farm, how the family (besides Eli) feel about Paul, nothing, and it has to be important especially because Paul is obviously Eli's twin and there is obviously bad blood in the family because of Paul (hence Eli's attacking of his father).

Second, the film is very heavy handed in its consumer/capitalist culture v. religion dichotomy. Obviously both Daniel and Eli are the devil as well as the savior at various points in the film but I would have appreciated the theme more had it been much more subtle (basically, had it been a theme instead of substituting for the plot).

Third, to follow number two, I would have liked a stronger, more obvious plot thread running throughout the whole film. Believe me, I know that the new trend is non-linear narratives that don't quite connect. The problem is, for the most part, those aren't quite working. Especially when there are holes in the character development thread. Really, I think the filmmakers need to choose one or the other; they can have artistic holes in either the plot or the character development, not both.

I guess at the end of the film, while I enjoyed it and the last scene was really intense and immediately drew me back into the film, I wish the whole movie had been as engaging. It's one that I'm happy to have seen but never need to see again (unless I teach Upton Sinclair for some unknown reason) and really I just left the theater with a sense of "eh." I just didn't end up caring about it.

It's worth seeing, once at least, for Daniel Day-Lewis's performance.

I forgot about this (although I don't know how), so a postscript: The soundtrack was one of the worst things I've ever heard. The first sounds of the movie came on and I literally thought there was something wrong with the speakers--it just sounded like feedback, really loud and harsh feedback. The whole movie was like nails on a chalkboard for me. Anyway, it's an important point that probably feeds my concerns about the movie.