Near Perfect

Rating: 9/10 (28 October 2011)

As close to perfection as one can possibly imagine. This film is simply stunning — an incredible artistic achievement, which is shocking, thrilling and totally absorbing.
Daniel Day Lewis gives a brooding, mesmerizing performance as the deranged prospector who rises from near broke to major oil baron through sheer force of will. He is not alone, however, in making the acting exciting, believable, intelligent and highly watchable — nearly every spoken line, gesture, look or presence in this work is thoughtful and bold — he just happens to give one of the best screen performances ever in cinema.
All other aspects of the film are of the very highest quality, from the music to the cinematography — they hardly matched in even the very best pictures made throughout the decades of cinema.
The story evolves slowly, but surely and the situation becomes increasingly tense. The characters unravel, not because the plot demands it but because of their central weaknesses, while the central character, played by Daniel Day Lewis, remains steady, largely because he is already calm within his own insanity, until the terrifying finale.
In short, one of the best films ever made.