Daniel Day-Lewis is superb

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2003)

This is a film that has the potential of a masterpiece, never is, but often comes close. It is a very good film, no doubt about it. I can't say what makes the film less good than the masterpiece it could be because everything is pretty great.
The story is about Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis) who runs Five Points in New York with his gang. They have a big fight with another gang, the "Dead Rabbits". The leader of that gang, Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson), is killed and his son Amsterdam Vallon witnesses everything. 16 years later he is Leonardo DiCaprio and he seeks revenge. A lot has changed. I can say more about the story but I don't want to give too much away. There's one sub-plot involving Cameron Diaz as the love interest.
The movie looks great. The costumes, setting, basically New York around 1846, looks perfect. The cinematography adds to this as well. DiCaprio is a good lead although almost every other character is more interesting including characters played by John C. Reilly, Jim Broadbent and Brendan Gleeson. The best thing in this picture is Daniel Day-Lewis. When he is on the screen you don't watch anything else, simply because you can't. He is so impressive, so great. For me it is the best performance I have seen this year (although Adrien Brody in 'The Pianist' comes close). He alone makes this movie worth watching, but fortunately there is much more to enjoy in another good film from great director Martin Scorsese.