very long, story could have been tightened up

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2009)

Sure Daniel Day Lewis was good in this, but his role in Gangs of New York was a lot better and he didn't win the Oscar for that. His character, Daniel Plainview, doesn't really do anything to stand out to me. And I thought his character was going to be a lot meaner than what he was.
Daniel Plainview is an oilman. He buys up land in Texas to drill and teaches his young son how to run the family business. He becomes successful but often cheats families when buying land. He doesn't give them the real value of the land. His son is injured in an accident and loses his hearing. Before too long, Daniel ships him off to school in California. He also must deal with a preacher, Sunday, that he considers a fake. He has to say he is a sinner in church in order to buy this one man's land. You could tell he really resented the preacher for this humiliation. He gets him back in the very end.
While his son is away, a man turns up claiming to be his brother. With his son gone, Daniel starts to let this guy get involved with the business. But the guy slips up and Daniel knows he's an impostor and shows him what happens when you cross Daniel Plainview.
Toward the end of the movie, it skips forward in time by many years. Daniel is now an old, lonely drunk. He lives in a huge mansion and his son comes by. The son says he wants to move to Mexico to get a drilling business going there. Daniel calls him a competitor and disowns him. He is very mean to his son and reveals a shocking secret about his childhood.
Overall, this is a dark film about a man making a living drilling for oil in the early 1900s.
FINAL VERDICT: Worth watching. I just don't think it's Daniel Day Lewis's best nor one of the top films of the year.