Exceedingly Unengaging

Rating: 3/10 (1 March 2016)

As far as films go Lincoln had a lot of potential. Spielberg has shown that he can aptly handle dialogue-heavy, historical films in the past and Daniel Day-Lewis is excellent in pretty much every role he's ever done. The teaming of these two for a film about one of the most influential Presidents in American history should have been a gripping experience. Yet it ends up being a major let-down, brushing aside any of Lincoln's rise to power or his first term and solely concentrating on the passing of the 13th Amendment which even the film struggles to understand the reasoning for. As a result of that why not call the film '13th Amendment' or something along those lines, inside of leading people to believe it is about the man himself.
I'm fine with dialogue-heavy films, but here the dialogue is handled and delivered in an incredibly dull fashion. There is no tension or emotion to anything anyone says throughout, which results in the speeches being flat and the lines coming off as if they were rehearsed to death instead of sounding naturalistic. All Lincoln does is tell analogies or stories that sound nice but have little to do with driving the film forward.
Day-Lewis is brilliant as always in what is a reserved but authoritative portrayal of Lincoln and he looks the part, though again he's let-down by the shoddy script. The problem with the cast is that there are simply too many speaking parts and most people get lost in the shuffle. Great actors like Sally Field, James Spader, Jared Harris and Bruce McGill get nothing of note to do or character of any substance. Only Tommy Lee Jones stands out as the no nonsense Thaddeus Stevens, but even then he's just doing what he always does.
Visually the film is tough to fault. The lighting is very natural and the costumes look fantastic, helping to create a real sense of another time. The make-up is again very strong especially on Day- Lewis. I would have liked more shots of the area and towns to create more of an atmosphere, because just watching people talking in rooms for long periods does get boring. Spielberg's direction is nothing special either, he keeps everything very basic and concentrates on the actors instead of any stylish shots.
The lack of any engaging quality is the films biggest downfall. Most people will know what takes place on the night of April 15th and in order to keep the audience invested despite that the film really had to try its hardest to give the characters strong emotions or make the dialogue interesting which it fails to do. By the time we reach the end of the film you don't really care what happens to anyone once the Amendment has been passed and the film just sort of ends on a flat note.
So for me Lincoln is yet another example of failed potential. A real gripping and thought-provoking piece could have been crafted here, and we know that the likes of Spielberg could make that possible. There's nothing wrong with Day-Lewis' Oscar winning performance and you can't fault the films visual authenticity. Yet it is massively let-down by its ponderous, uncertain script and a distinct lack of urgency or drive to the narrative. This isn't the type of film that can almost grind to a halt at times, which it proves is its biggest issue. It's better to think of what could have been than be bored by this underwhelming effort.