Like a great play with phenomenal cast

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2013)

Knowing that story quite well, and as a fan of Spielberg, I was expecting a lot from this film, that I saw after all the buzz following Academy Awards nominations. As many critics have reviewed, this is essentially a dialogue movie, people are talking all the time, sometimes in law babble. So the film is more like a theatre play, with very few scenes of real action. But it's a masterpiece in its genre. There are so much great performances in it that's impossible to signal them all. At least, I was moved a lot by many scenes with George Yeaman (Michael Stuhlbarg), Preston Blair (Hal Holbrook), Molly Lincoln (Sally Field), Robert Lincoln (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Ulysses S. Grant (Jared Harris), Elizabeth Keckley (Gloria Reuben), W.N. Bilbo (James Spader), and of course, Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones). Not surprisingly: in all the scenes these great actors are sharing the screen with Daniel Day-Lewis. After seeing him in so many films where he was great, it seems almost impossible that this actor may get better. He is and it's a joy to watch. You must see this film, a history lesson.