Paul Thomas Anderson's Absolute Best Film.

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2008)

Loosely based on Upton Sinclair's OIL!, Paul Thomas Anderson has created a character study about greed, fortune, and the abominable ways the human spirit can persevere.
Daniel Day-Lewis is mesmerizing as Daniel Plainview, a miner turned oil man, whose singular goal in life is to make as much money as possible. He inherits a child, raises the boy as his own, and uses the boy's sweet face to sell his business and expand his riches.
Paul Dano of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE fame plays Paul/Eli Sunday; two characters in one, depending on your own view, who tells the booming and notorious Plainview of some latent oil on his family's land. Once a bargain is set, Plainview and his young son, H.W., set out to find this acreage, and upon discovering it, make even more dealings with the Sunday family.
With the new income and Plainview's ceaseless money, Eli Sunday plans on building his own church, spreading the good word, and escalating his own name into a seat of power. But Plainview sees something in Sunday that no one else does, and soon makes clear that no one but himself is in charge.
With negotiations done, the well is sprung, men are brought in from all over, and Plainview has yet another vast property with an "ocean of oil" beneath it. But when an unfortunate event arises, Plainview's contempt for his fellow man becomes clearer with each scene, and his free fall into madness accelerates.
TWBB has a variety of memorable scenes with DDL stealing every shot he is in; from his encounters with long lost relatives, corporate heads, or simple townsfolk, Plainview is a man who purposely lives his life through fraudulence, intimidating and outsmarting people with each crooked step he takes.
Dano and DDL met on the set of THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE, and it is very obvious, due to the sheer physicality of their on screen relationship, that their friendship and acting compatibility is one of the best to date.
An explosive and intense film with stellar acting, music (Jonny Greenwood) and direction; made by a myriad of expert filmmakers.