Terrifyingly good!

Rating: 8/10 (18 August 2008)

"There Will be Blood" is one of the best films to come out of Hollywood recently. PT Anderson, who served up such delicious offerings as "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" once again delivers a tour-de-force. The storyline follows US Oilmen in the 1890's, although nothing we saw in "Dallas" and "Dynasty" in the 80's prepared us for THESE oilmen! In a harsh landscape, people scrabbled to make a living and if you had an iota of business acumen and the penchant to use others for your own gain, you went far. (This is how I understood the storyline!) Daniel Day Lewis is scarily good in the main role, veering between showy salesman and brutal taskmaster, he delivers one of the scariest characters seen on screen recently. Paul Dano, in his preacher role, matches Day-Lewis scene for scene, which is surprising for one so young. I'm inclined to say that Mr Dano was robbed of an Oscar nom. The only detraction is the soundtrack, which is a bit of a distraction with such a good storyline, but thats a minor quibble in what is essentially a modern masterpiece!