Disappointing

Rating: 2/10 (26 January 2013)

As several other reviewers have noted, this is a rather boring movie. Staying awake for the duration was a challenge.
Unfortunately, this is not one of Mr. Spielberg's better efforts. We are given too many modernist interpretations for it to be enjoyable. The first three minutes give us a glimpse of what's in store. Negro soldiers approach President Lincoln, complaining about their rate of pay. Using perfectly-educated diction. Quite farcical. The Negros idolized Lincoln. Lincoln was champion of their fight for freedom! None would have dared complain to the President about a paycheck. Mr. Spielberg completely misses the fact that these former slaves turned soldiers are getting PAID! One of the white soldiers then starts in reciting "The Gettysburg Address". More fantasy. Illiteracy was the norm. The average man could not read let alone recite something from memory.
The casting was dismal. Daniel Day-Lewis just did not do it for this viewer as Honest Abe. His voice is too nasal and whiny. He has perhaps a handful of good lines in the entire movie. His accent creeps through once or twice. We get very little sense of the greatness of the man. Sally Field played Sally Field. Tommie Lee Jones pretty much played Tommie Lee Jones.
The script was uneven. Near the end of the film we get self-absorbed introspection from Mary Todd Lincoln ("They're all just going to think I was crazy"). Not likely! In another scene on the floor of the House of Representatives, one of the Congressmen actually uses the term 'blacks'. I'm sorry, that was NOT in the lexicon of 1864 America. This wasn't even in the lexicon of 1964 America!
Of course, the title is quite misleading too. The film doesn't really tell us much about Lincoln, the man. Maybe a better title would have been "Fear and Loathing in Congress".
The film is overly dark. Why did the cinematographer feel the need to dim the lights down to mere shadows for nearly all scenes? This effect did nothing but distract the viewer and induce slumber.
But the biggest failure of the film is the lack of a cohesive story. Mr. Spielberg just throws various scenes on top of one another with little to hold them together. A bit more character development would not have hurt either. How many audience members know anything at all about lifelong bachelor Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (who chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee) and his mixed-race widowed housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Smith? Other reviewers have also tried somehow to compare this film to John Cromwell's Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940). There IS no comparison. Cromwell's film is masterful. Granted, the Cromwell film does have a few flaws of its own but the script and historical accuracy were exceptional. Raymond Massey gave the best portrayal of Lincoln this reviewer has ever seen. Ruth Gordon also gave a fine performance as Mary Todd Lincoln.
Much, much more was expected here. Sadly, the film fails as both entertainment and historical reference.