Well executed, highly original tale of oil.

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2008)

Daniel Day-Lewis is Daniel Plainview, an outwardly normal man who sees oil drilling, the exploitation of land and people, and the accumulation of riches as a moral calling. He's as Calvinistically devoted to his work as the zealous preacher of the Third Evangelical Church, whom and which he hates passionately. The story begins with Lewis working alone, chipping away at the bottom of a pit, and ends with him bashing someone's brains out in the bowling alley of his Citizen-Kane-like mansion.
The whole movie is weird, something along the lines of Terence Malick, without the narration. The musical score, for instance, by Jonnny Greenwood is not what any sane viewer would expect. Except for a dash of Brahm's violin concerto in celebration of the drilling of the first well in New Boston, it skitters all over the place, full of dissonant strings and, during an action sequence, out-of-synch percussion exclusively.
The loopy story covers 30 years in the early development of the petroleum industry and Lewis is one of the first Seneca oil salesmen. He cheats churches out of money he promised them. He adopts an orphaned boy because having a sweet child along might help him in swindling people out of their oil-rich land for "quail prices, not for oil prices." In his dealings with others, he sounds polite and practical but inside that shell of practiced convention, there isn't much except anger, loneliness, and a twisted connection to the child that isn't his.
The movie hangs almost entirely on the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis -- and does he deliver! Wow. He comes from the British tradition of technical actors who don't delve into their own emotions for a role. That well will turn up dry. Instead they adopt the tics, mannerisms, and voice of the characters they are playing. In Lewis's case it's always interesting to see what he'll come up with next. What a villainous New Yorker he was in "Gangs of New York." His character here is originally from Wisconsin, but his voice doesn't sound particularly Midwestern. Instead, if you can imagine this, it sounds like a cross between John Huston and Sean Connery, with intimations of Jack Palance.
He outdoes himself in the climactic bowling alley scene. He's waked up by his nemesis from the Evangelical Church, a pasty faced, youthful demagogue from the pulpit who casts out devils -- his own brand of snake oil. (The novel was written by Upton Sinclair, a faded writer who may now be more relevant than ever.) Anyway, Lewis has fallen asleep drunk, in the middle of a bowling alley, a half-eaten plate of food beside him, snoring away on the hardwood floor. It takes forever to rouse him, and it's a mistake to do so. He climbs unsteadily to his feet, shaking his leg that has fallen asleep, still half drunk, and after tormenting his would-be savior, hobbles around clumsily after him, throwing bowling balls and ninepins at him, until he finally flattens and brains him. (Not his first murder.)
When the butler appears and inquires, "Mister Plainview?", Lewis is sitting on the floor, legs akimbo, and shouts, "I'm FINISHED." It has the resonance of, "Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?" Oh, the movie is slow here and there. And some of the ambiguity is perhaps too ambiguous without intending to be so. But the film as a whole overcomes its own weaknesses with a more-than-able assist from Lewis. Watch him in the scene in the primitive church, when he confesses what a sinner he is and must beg to be washed in the blood of the lamb (in order to have access to another tract of land). The preacher hectors him with accusations of having abandoned his child, something Lewis earlier threatened to cut someone's throat for, and Lewis is bursting with rage and humiliation -- sputtering, "Oh, Lord, I have SINNED! Let me get out of here!"
It's a rare film. It's aimed at adults rather than teens impatient to see heads wrenched off. It's aimed at people capable of patience and curiosity about others. There are two murders but not a drop of blood is seen -- and no phony sex. No sex at all. Plainview doesn't want to be loved. He wants to be feared.