Doesn't quite hit the heights it could have

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2008)

A tale of two films. There Will Be Blood begins with tremendous promise. Throughout the first half of the film you get the sense this may be something rather special. But as the second half plays out the film fails to live up to the great promise it seemingly had. It's a potentially exceptional film which somewhere along the line lost its way and ended up being not exceptional but merely good. Well worth seeing but in the end it is a film which comes with a touch of disappointment. So much promise but it kind of peters out. It's a good film but you know it could have been better.
The movie sets up as a Daniel Day-Lewis showcase and his performance as early 1900s oilman Daniel Plainview is indeed remarkable. Perhaps a bit of overacting here and there but all in all a terrific job. The character of Plainview is cold, ruthless, almost entirely unsympathetic and perhaps a bit off his rocker. Seeing this man go about his business, cheaply buying up incredibly valuable oil-rich land, is a perverse treat. When Plainview buys up one particular ranch and his massive drilling operation sets up shop in this small California community the film reaches its tipping point. The ranch in question belongs to the Sunday family, whose most notable member is young preacher Eli who seeks some of Plainview's money to allow him to do the only thing which seems to matter to him, expand his church. Suffice to say Plainview and Eli do not exactly hit it off. There are mishaps, there are complications and there is seemingly quite the platform built for a fascinating second half of the film. And then the whole thing falls a little bit flat.
Unfortunately the story in the film's second half doesn't really engage. There's just not a whole lot of interest going on and the movie begins to drag as it strains to reach its conclusion. This movie belongs to Day-Lewis all the way and his character of Plainview is a fascinating one. But as the film plays out it is as if there's nothing left to do with the character. We've established that he's cold and ruthless, that he pretty much hates everybody, that he can't stand to see anyone else succeed. Where do we go from there? Apparently nowhere as there's really nothing new for Plainview to do. The movie just kind of sits there as we watch Plainview be a mean, miserable louse. When we finally reach the end, a rather unsatisfying and peculiar end at that, there is a sense of disappointment. Day-Lewis is great, overshadowing pretty much everyone and everything around him. Playing Eli, the other key character in the film, Paul Dano was always going to suffer by comparison and his character too often comes across as weak and ineffectual. It's a Day-Lewis tour de force and in the conflict between Plainview and Eli, it is Day-Lewis who dominates. It's his movie, nobody else was ever going to measure up to his performance. But outstanding as his performance may be the film still never hits the heights it could have. The film certainly looks nice, with some truly wonderful cinematography. And Day-Lewis is indeed terrific. But in the end this is a film which could have been great but will have to settle for being merely good. Worth watching but not remarkable.