Earnest, worthy, quite good, with wonderful Day-Lewis

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2013)

Just when he should be thinking about slowing down and taking it a bit more easy, middle-aged Abe finds himself tasked with sorting out a long running dispute between two sets of neighbours, while simultaneously trying to stop one of those sets of neighbours from taking advantage of a group of immigrants, and all this in the face of being nagged by his sharp-tongued wife.
OK, so I've synopsised Steven Spielberg's Lincoln as if it was an episode of a long running sit-com, which is unfair of me. It's a reaction to the fact that I went to see Lincoln because I thought I ought to, not because I wanted to. After all, as a Brit, what interest could I possibly have in USA history (apart, possibly from that War of Independence bit where the tenants threw out the landlord)?
Notwithstanding having seen the trailer a number of times, my preconceptions were wrong. This is not a biography of Lincoln. It is not even a view of the Civil War. Instead, it is a view of the concentrated period leading up to the passing of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolishing slavery, detailing the horse-trading needed to get the necessary votes, the pressure to get the Amendment passed before peace negotiations with the South begin in earnest, the unlikely alliances needed to achieve this, and Lincoln's role as a consummate politician within all this.
Unfortunately, it does get sidetracked from time to time with additional pressures arising from Lincoln's family (Sally Field, who I normally loathe, is rather good as Mrs Lincoln, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is grossly under-used as son Robert): I felt this could all have been omitted with little significant effect on the film, which otherwise held my attention and entertained me throughout. Yes, it is earnest and, yes, it is worthy, but it is also enjoyable.
Tommy Lee Jones steals every scene he is in, and Daniel Day-Lewis stakes his claim to the 2012 Best Actor Oscar. If he wins, it is because he deserves to.