Pretentious, rambling, overbearing

Rating: 6/10 (10 February 2008)

I went to this movie with high expectations, hoping for a powerful and moving viewing experience. But it didn't happen for me. The persona of the movie is the same as the persona of Daniel Plainview: didactic, driven, harsh, bullying; demanding and then not delivering. Don't take me as a philistine-- I can appreciate Citizen Cane, Greed, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, etc., etc. I just don't see that this movie rises to that level. Give me Chinatown or The Godfather or Scarface, but don't try to tell me that Daniel Day-Lewis with a Sean Connery affect is anywhere near as good an embodiment of evil as Orson Wells as a drunken corrupt cop in a broiling border town. I would have rather spent my time re-watching Once Upon a Time in the West to get my strange music and wide open silent spaces punctuated by violent outbursts. Give me Gregory Peck as Ahab--at least I can appreciate what drove him to his madness. I wish I could put my finger on what really bothers me so much here. I haven't seen No Country for Old Men yet but I recently read the novel (before I knew it was being produced) and found it fascinatingly brilliant. I understand Upton Sinclair's viewpoint on the American Dream (I teach American literature) and can appreciate a good anti-hero when I see one. So why does this movie leave me so empty?