Lacking.

Rating: 5/10 (17 February 2008)

Once again it seems that P.T. Anderson has fooled a great many people into believing he has made a great film. Though There Will Be Blood is miles ahead of Magnolia, Mr. Anderson has still to this day made only one great film. That would be Boogie Nights, in case you're wondering. There Will Be Blood is an obvious attempt at greatness, and for that reason alone all involved need to be given credit. Unfortunately, this film as a whole is a misfire with nuggets of greatness found here and there.
Daniel Day-Lewis deserves all of the accolades and awards he will likely win for his performance as Daniel Plainview, an obsessed oil baron from the early days of the twentieth century. There is a grand coldness that beams down from him on all those around him as he attempts to extract as much oil as possible from the California desert and eventually build a pipeline to the ocean so he can avoid shipping costs. He uses false promises and charm to buy out everyone standing in his way. His relentlessness will simply not allow him to be anything other than successful. His only companion for much of the film is an orphan boy he raises as his son. Eventually, an accident deafens the boy, and Plainview basically casts him aside. Other than a man claiming to be his long-lost half brother, Plainview never seems close to anyone else. Though he eventually achieves great success, he is really just a shell of a man on the inside.
The biggest problem with this film is how it is written. Anderson makes the mistake of going for character development above anything else. The trouble with that is his main character cannot be developed. After the first twenty minutes of the film, we know all we're ever going to know about Daniel Plainview. The script should have focused more on Plainveiw the businessman, and how the oil business works. We don't really get much insight to just how Plainview backs up his claims about being able to deliver on his promises about drilling and extracting oil. We don't see many disputes involving Plainview and his competition, either. There are a couple of arguments he has with some rival oilmen, but these eventually break down into how Plainview is a bad father and whatnot. Again, going for character development when we should be looking at the business side of the man.
The film is beautifully shot, and filled with eerie music similar to that found in The Shining. That kind of music worked in The Shining. Here it is basically a distraction. The acting is uniformly excellent from the supporting cast. Paul Dano is wonderful as the boy preacher of a nearby community who becomes Plainview's rival on a spiritual level. Their rivalry almost gives this film an incredible final scene until Anderson jumps the shark in the final frames with an act of violence that left everyone in the theater scratching their heads. That scene was working spectacularly up until the very end.
Worse than anything else, this film was kind of boring. Now "boring" is not a word I like to use in describing another person's creative output. But this time... yes, I was a bit bored. There are long stretches of this film that drag on and on with no payoff to them. The film is rated R, yet there isn't much in the way of violence, sex, or profanity. Honestly it wouldn't even be a hard PG-13 in my book. This film has been nominated for all manner of awards and accolades. Frankly, if you hold this film up to No Country For Old Men, is pales drastically in comparison. That is a great film. There Will Be Blood just isn't. 5 of 10 stars.
The Hound.