The finest movie I have seen since Schindler's List

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 2012)

Not since I first saw Schindler's List have I been so overwhelmed and impressed with a movie. Yes, Day-Lewis gives a performance that will be one for the ages, like James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He gets great support from Straitharn and Jones, who make their characters come alive as well.
But, for me, the two things that really allowed this movie to become the masterpiece I saw this afternoon were, first and foremost, the miraculous script, and then the directing of it. The script does not, in any way, play down to someone's negative idea of the American public. It deals with complex issues, sometimes in Biblicly-inflected language, that is beautifully delivered by Day-Lewis, Straithairn, and Jones. This is movie script as real dramatic literature, where the beauty of the language counts but in no way impedes the power of the drama. I saw this along with a fair-sized crowd, and you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. No one was futzing with his cell-phone, or talking to his neighbor. Spielberg kept us in the palm of his hand throughout, and we did not dare look away, for fear of missing the complexity of what was going on.
By the end, I felt exhausted, and deeply moved by Lincoln's death, but at the same time very happy I had gone through the wringer with it. I don't know if this is what Aristotle meant by catharsis - I don't think so - but this is what theater at its best can and should do to and for us.
Go see this movie. If it does not carry off all the major Oscars (except for actresses), I will be very surprised.