I. Drink. Your. MILKSHAKE!

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2008)

This movie solidifies Daniel Day-Lewis as the breakout actor of this decade. Always selective in his roles, he does the character of Daniel Plainview with such brilliant intensity, humor, love, hate, and subtlety that you never realize his character is changing as the movie progresses.
The story is not at all highly dramatic and complex, following the simple story of Plainview's attempt to get at the vast ocean of oil beneath a small western village. The movie is primarily a character study, as Daniel takes up perhaps 90% of the movie.
Paul Dano, as Eli Sunday, plays opposite Daniel not too often, but in such a social duel with one another that doesn't overwhelm or underwhelm. And you begin to notice throughout the movie that Eli becomes more and more like Daniel as the story progresses.
The movie's focus on Daniel is done in such a way that the movie is about him, but not in a megalomaniacal way that he must be on screen at all times. Other characters shine around him, and play off of him to make their own characters that much more interesting.
The break-out acting by Daniel Day-Lewis peaks by the end, in which all subtlety is abandoned in a closing scene bound to be a Hollywood classic. Maybe in the future, alongside the likes of "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" or "Stella!", will be a most memorable movie line, "I. DRINK. YOUR. MILKSHAKE!!!!!! I DRINK IT UP!!!"