Stunning Production & Faultless Performances in Long Slow Wordy Film

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2012)

The makeup and period hairstyles, mustaches, and beards on the countless male actors in Steven Spielberg's two-and-a-half hour "Lincoln" are so meticulous that the characters seem to step from 19th-century daguerreotypes. However, what is high praise for the legions of hairdressers and makeup artists that labored on the film, the comment underscores a wandering interest from the slow, often ponderous proceedings on screen. The film's technical aspects are beyond reproach; from Janusz Kaminiski's atmospheric cinematography that evokes the gaslight era to Rick Carter's detailed production design of Civil War Washington, "Lincoln" has been crafted with care and skill.
The large cast of veteran actors equals the film's physical accomplishments. Led and perhaps inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, who inhabits the role of Lincoln as no one has done before, the performers are credible and often outstanding. Not since "Forrest Gump" has Sally Field had a role like Mary Lincoln; although excellent throughout, Field has one spectacular scene that could clinch her a third Oscar and further proof "that we really like her." Playing congressmen, politicians, cabinet members, and generals, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Haley, Tim Blake Nelson and others ably fill the outstanding cast. Strangely though for a film about emancipation, few African-Americans have important roles.
However, despite superb technical credits and an inspired cast that boasts Oscar-worthy performances, "Lincoln" plods on with words, words, words, and little action beyond afternoon sunlight filtering through lace curtains. While the film recovers afterward, an opening scene that features soldiers reciting the Gettysburg Address to Lincoln is corny and unconvincing, and a number of scenes have "important" rubber-stamped all over them. Perhaps die-hard Civil War buffs will relish the verbal sparring, but a lame attempt to create suspense during voting on the 13th amendment fails, largely because the outcome was revealed in elementary school American History texts. However, Spielberg often creates memorable images: Grant tipping his hat to Lee at the Appomattox surrender, amputated limbs tossed into a muddy pit, a clean new Stars and Stripes passing a soiled tattered Stars and Bars that flutters over a quiet battlefield littered with thousands of dead soldiers. "Lincoln" is a film of countless elegiac moments, faultless technical credits, and award-worthy performances; unfortunately, an old adage applies, and the whole is less than the sum of its parts.