what we have here is a caring film, filled with wonderful performances and nuances

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2013)

Steven Spielberg is a mixed blessing â€“ over the years he has given us some of the most inspired moments in Cinema history (Jaws), at other times he can be intensely sickly-sweet and overtly sentimental and obvious (The Colour Purple, E.T, The Terminal), either way Hollywood certainly wouldn't be the same without him.
So it was with some caution that I approached Lincoln his new, Oscar nominated, collaboration with Tony Kushner (Munich) starring the enigmatic Daniel Day-Lewis.
DDL is pretty much always a dead cert to be a joy to watch, so there was no fear here, but how else will Spielberg approach the last few months of one of the greatest and most popular American presidents of all time (in a weekend where apparently all I did was watch film about popular American presidents in preparation of the superbowl).
And as the film progressed, to my astonishment, the answer revealed itself much in the way this film does generally; with real class and subtlety.
It would be easy for a lesser-experienced director to just go straight for the jugular in re-telling the story of the man in charge of probably America's most tumultuous period... www.ravechild.co.uk