The History Channel Presents

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2013)

A lot can be said for Daniel Day-Lewis's performance as Abraham Lincoln - it's amazing indeed. We all knew it would be the second the casting was announced. Day-Lewis breathes life into one of American history's most mythological figures, making him charismatic, larger than life, but sweet and spiteful and just human too. He's not alone - the supporting cast (special mention to Tommy Lee Jones) all do a commendable job, slipping comfortably into their characters, and delivering their dusty lines in a way that feels natural and fresh, as if you've stepped back straight into Lincoln's time.
And yet - unfortunately - the wonderful acting is the only thing that makes Lincoln anything more than a History Channel docu-drama, albeit a very well-budgeted one. Beneath the superb actors; the flawless set and costume designs; the high-contrast, full of pathos cinematography that places Lincoln with a convenient halo behind his head every time; there's a very dull story treatment that moves at a steady and monotonic pace, with no ups and downs, no tension and no climaxes. It deals with the loaded and painful subject of slavery, yet somehow manages to completely avoid any sort of emotion. The viewer doesn't care about slavery, or about the 13th amendment - we care because we know Lincoln was a good guy and we want him to win. Slavery isn't given a face, slaves aren't given a face, and even when the amendment does pass we feel nothing. This is jarring when coming from Steven Spielberg, the master of emotional manipulation, who pulled at every heart string with last year's schmaltzy 'War Horse'.
Lincoln is informative. Enough so that, if you're at all interested in the time period, the 2.5 hour runtime will go by reasonably quickly and the film will remain interesting throughout. It's also, admittedly, Spielberg's best film in years - since Catch Me If You Can, if not since Schindler's List. But one of the best films of the year? Hardly. At the end of the day, it feels like a very well-made historical reconstruction, and not a drama film. The points where it might have striven for some emotional connection - Lincoln's scenes with his wife Mary Todd (Sally Field) and son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and of course the assassination itself - are handled very poorly and feel like a lame attempt to squeeze some feeling out of the audience; again, a shocker when coming from a master like Spielberg. A film that could have been so much better than it is, but will still be shown to school children for years to come.