The Only American Masterpiece of 2007

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2008)

Once in a very rare while (all too rarely, alas) I leave a film instantly convinced that I just experienced an enduring classic in real time, and that's how I felt after watching "There Will Be Blood." It is an amazing film with a performance at its center that defies description, and I haven't been as energized or excited over a new release since last year's "Children of Men." I've always liked Paul Thomas Anderson, even at his most over indulgent ("Magnolia"), but he's never seemed as mature a filmmaker as he does here. Where other Anderson films have sustained one long fevered pitch and burnt themselves out in exhaustion, this film is restrained and disciplined; it builds slowly and inexorably to a powerhouse conclusion. Like nearly every Anderson film, it's a love it or hate it movie. It's virtually impossible to have an indifferent reaction to it. And I imagine the ending will be one of the most divisive aspects of the film. I, for one, thought it ended perfectly, and suspect it will be a long time before I get the film's final image and line out of my head.
No review of this film is complete without mentioning Daniel Day-Lewis, who is nothing less than a force of nature at its center. His performance is so good it's scary; what he does in this film can't even be called acting. I've seen other performances this year that I greatly admired: Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah," Ryan Gosling in "Lars and the Real Girl," Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises." But Day-Lewis seems to be working in a completely different stratosphere than these others. In Daniel Plainview, the oilman who's eaten from within by greed and a lust for power, he has created a villain that's one-dimensional yet extremely complex all at the same time. Plainview should be a boring character, because he's so single minded in purpose, yet Day-Lewis makes him endlessly fascinating. And was I the only person who actually liked him a little bit? In a world full of hypocrisy and men telling one another what they want to hear the better to take advantage, Plainview is refreshingly honest and straightforward, no matter how abominable he may be. He's like the American system of free enterprise taken to its monstrous extreme.
Though set in the past, the film is one of the most relevant I've seen this year. The battle over economic and religious domination is obviously one that rages today. Religious and corporate institutions differ only in their methods -- both are driven by a lust for power and control.
And to top it all off, Johnny Greenwood provides one of the most unique and sensational scores to grace a movie screen in a long time.
I can't say enough good things about this movie.
Grade: A+