Powerful stuff.

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2008)

Powerful stuff. A disturbing performance from Daniel Day Lewis, uncomfortable to watch and hard to forget. At the end of the film I felt that I knew this character and was glad that actually I didn't. All the other actors offered good support but it was the central performance that makes this. Even without speaking he so totally conveys the character of Plainview with his expressions and body language,that the long sections without speech are just as strong as the carefully delivered words.
Excellently paced, I read one critic who felt that this dragged in the middle but I found even the slowness of the action absorbing, and the length gave it a kind of epic build to the act that the title suggest. The guy who played Ely Sunday was just perfect too, just irritating enough so that you knew where this was going. Great film.