 Paramount // Buy from Amazon.comA sprawling epic of family, faith, power and oil, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is set on the incendiary frontier of California's turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon. When Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that there's a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy roller church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value - love, hope, community, belief, ambition and even the bond between father and son - is imperiled by corruption, deception and the flow of oil. I suppose I shouldn't have been expecting Daniel Day-Lewis to conjure up his "Butcher Bill" character from "Gangs of New York" but somehow I expected him to once again give a tour de force performance as a wacked-out nutjob, just this time in turn-of-the-century California rather than old New York. As it turns out, he plays a mostly likeable - or at least very human - character in "There Will Be Blood" and clearly deserved the Oscar he received for the role... just too bad the rest of the film is such a snoozer. It's beautiful - with some of the most wonderfully-crafted cinematography. There are great performances throughout. Even the attention to historical accuracy is admirable in this one. However, the running length is 158 minutes, and I swear I could count every single second of those 2 1/2 hours. An hour in, we're just barely into the story, and by then I was starting to doze off. I wanted to care more, especially when H.W. was hurt, but my sense of boredom overwhelmed whatever emotional investment I had made in the story or its characters by that point... Lots of hype for this one, but I have to say that I really didn't care for it. No doubt that'll put me in the minority, but that's fine by me. Video Presented in a stunning anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, the picture quality of this film is truly breathtaking. With a very stylized color palette, each frame of this film is beautifully staged & shot and you feel like you're viewing a film from another era. Audio The included Dolby 5.1 surround mix is pretty surprising - mostly quiet, the unique (yet ear-catching) soundtrack will fire up and seemingly random times, to add further layers of atmosphere to an already-rich cinematic tapestry. Extras Closing Thoughts Beautiful, but ultimately boring, film + weak collection of extras (given it's "Collector's Edition" status) = a film that's clearly a victim of being overhyped Labels: review |
