Uneven

Rating: 8/10 (17 August 2008)

I have mixed feeling for this one. The first act starts off brilliantly, showing Daniel Plainview's (Daniel Day Lewis) plight in finding and extracting oil, a brilliant 15 minutes, sans dialogue! Once Plainview does speak, we do not like him. A truly...(read more) sinister person, his greed for money and power is driven by his hatred for others. He is willing to manipulate anyone to gain what he desires, and he does. Once Plainview learns of the oil rich land in Little Boston, California, the rest of the film is devoted to Plainviews manipulation of the townspeople, his battles with an evangelical preacher Eli Sunday (played brilliantly by Paul Dano), his alienation from his family, and eventual downfall into a bizarre third act. With that being said, this film is very uneven. Though I found the 1st and 3rd acts to be wonderful, with the latter being a bit strange, the 2nd act was far too slow. From Plainviews arrival in Little Boston, up until the last 20 minutes, there was far too much filler in those 90 or so in between minutes. Sure, there were a lot of absolutely brilliant moments, and some jaw-dropping amazingly perfect dialogue (Plainview is very quotable), but a lot of those 90 minutes drag. The film could have easily been cut by 30 minutes. The whole side plot with Plainview's brother from another mother felt contrived and a bit unnecessary. Moreover, Plainview's battle with Eli Sunday felt very undeveloped. On the other hand, the films main story about Plainview's rise and the effect it has on both him and his family is brilliantly done. The film would have benefited from devoting as much screen time fleshing out the secondary characters in the story, especially Eli Sunday's character, than the ending would have been more coherent. Aside from that, I though the film was wonderful. The story was interesting, the dialogue was absolutely brilliant, and the cinematography was at times, mesmerizingly beautiful. The wide landscape shots and oil drilling scenes are highlights. Jonny Greenwoods (Radioheads lead guitarist) score is creepy and tension filled, it complimented the eerie edgy tone of the film wonderfully. Overall, I would have to say this is a flawed masterpiece, its a film of many brilliant moments interlaced with some pacing and characterization issues. If the characters were fleshed out a little more, and the film spent a little more time in the editing room, I would say it was perfect.