The film gushes with so much intense stateliness that some viewers hail it a masterpiece before it's half-finished...

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2010)

An enigmatic, savvy silver and gold prospector in California in the late-1890s eventually makes enough money to hire a crew and drill for oil; several years later, he gets a curious tip about a possible boom-town up north where the oil is right up on the earth's surface. He views the poor, humble residents there with a jaundiced eye--perhaps they're ripe for the picking--but quickly finds himself battling a religious zealot, the forces of fate, not to mention the greedy, encroaching railroad executives who want to muscle in on his progress. Director Paul Thomas Anderson, who also adapted the screenplay from Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil!", opens his picture with a brilliant fifteen-minute prologue with no dialogue (the gripping, extraordinarily physical visuals carry it). Once the characters begin to take shape--particularly Daniel Day-Lewis' distrusting, cynical Daniel Plainview--the dramatic narrative becomes orchestrated in an even more grandiose fashion. Many splendid sequences come of this, yet one gets the feeling that Anderson is trying too hard to bowl his audience over with sneaky plot mechanics (Jonny Greenwood's insidious score always telegraphing us to the upcoming horrors). The ingredients become overcooked, and with such a lengthy running-time it isn't long before the film's early promise leaks out. Day-Lewis, perhaps channeling the ghost of John Huston, won a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar for his crafty performance, though it isn't a multi-layered one; the script steadfastly refuses to reveal its characters in any shades other than black and white. Anderson may have hoped to create a swirling sort of mysterious typhoon here, but the artiness of this concept results in impatience over genius. ** from ****