A waste of 2 and a half hours

Rating: 1/10 (31 January 2009)

I wanted to like this film. I truly did. How could all of those critics and Awards panels be wrong? It was always going to be unlikely, with Daniel Day Lewis having the lead role, but sometimes an over-rated actor can put in a great performance (Tom Hanks in The Green Mile being a case in point).
But this was just another over the top performance from a mediocre actor who for some reason gets the critics excited.
He's not the only problem though. There is not a single likable character in this film - even HW, the 'son' of Daniel Plainview, is happy to rip off the landowners at his tender age.
The pacing was slow to the point of 'GET ON WITH IT!' and the directing was lazy. Any director can get a bad performance out of Day Lewis - they all have so far. How about trying something new, like getting him to put in a subtle, understated performance? Is that too much to ask? The rest of the casting was no better, with Paul Dano being woefully cast as the smug, self-serving Eli.
The entire film has no direction, it just plays out like a rather boring episode from someone's life, and you don't care what happens to any of the characters.
The son being struck deaf should have been a traumatic moment for the viewer, but it's so badly done, so clichéd (Struck deaf by his 'father's' true love (oil)). Is that really the best they could come up with? This film has nothing to recommend it to anyone looking to be entertained.