One of the Best Films of the Year

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2007)

With new TV missing in action, the cinema has provided some excellent jewels to turn to during the coming holiday season. With two of my personal favorites already in wider release, "No Country for Old Men" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," I can add one more title to the short list of must-see films: P.T. Anderson's "There Will Be Blood." Having been quite the admirer of Mr. Anderson's work, even through the admirable misfire of "Magnolia," "There Will Be Blood" marks the director's strongest work yet.
An adaptation of Upton Sinclair's "Oil!," "There Will Be Blood" traces the capitalist ambition of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), an up and coming oil prospector. While he begins the film with a certain humility, personally digging oil wells himself and taking on the orphan (Dillon Freasier) of a fallen colleague as his own son, Daniel gradually falls into a state of absolute greed. However, unlike the typical rags to riches story whose fallen heroes often find self-destruction through material goods, Daniel is not driven by money or women. As he venomously discloses to his brother, "I have a competition in me; I want no one else to succeed. I hate most peopleÂ…I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone. I can't keep doing this on my own, with these...people." This contempt, like the oil in Plainview's well, slowly begins to bubble to the surface, coming to a full eruption when confronted with Pastor Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). Plainview, attempting to acquire the land in which Eli's family lives, is confronted with the young man's informed business sense is and forced to fund a church for the town. Plainview quickly comes to the realization that like himself, Eli is a charlatan, misleading the town people while attempting to drain the town in his own way. Ultimately, this contempt forces Plainview to sinister means in his continued attempt for absolute success, drawing Sinclair and Anderson's critique of rugged individualist greed to crescendo.
Much has been written about Anderson's cinematic style and his continual citation of Martin Scorsese and, perhaps more frequently, Robert Altman, to whom Anderson served as an assistant and has dedicated the film to. While traces of Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" highlight Anderson's gritty and, ultimately existentially hopeless, view of the West, the film is perhaps more in debt to the work of Stanley Kubrick. One can sense within "There Will Be Blood" a similar treatment of gradual social alienation that propels "The Shining." While the beautiful cinematography of Robert Elswit re-enforces this reading, perhaps the largest marker of Anderson's homage to Kubrick comes from his use of music, specifically string cues (composed by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood). Through the clashing echo of strings, Anderson raises Plainview's mental disintegration to a visceral level, pushing the viewer towards the anxiety shared by the protagonist.
Of course, much of Plainview's mental state relies on the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis. Finding himself in a similar role to the sociopathic Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," Day-Lewis's seething performance stands as one of the year's best. From the slow progression from teeth-gritting resentment to the drooling hatred of a junkyard dog, Day-Lewis hits all of his marks perfectly without overplaying the material penned by Anderson. Day-Lewis meets his match with the strong performance of Paul Dano. Casting aside the mute persona he established in "Little Miss Sunshine," Dano brings a tremendous amount of energy to the malicious role of Eli. Through the work of Day-Lewis, Dano, and a strong supporting cast (including Ciaran Hinds), Anderson has yet again proved himself as an actor's director.
Unlike his work in "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia," and "Punch-Drunk Love," Anderson brings a great deal of restraint to "There Will Be Blood." While the film has some of his trademark long-takes, the film, much like David Fincher's work on "Zodiac" earlier this year, contains little style for style's sake. Instead, bringing himself back towards the aesthetic of his superb "Hard Eight," Anderson lets his gift for writing and direction of actors guide the film. Through this intense and rewarding collaboration, Anderson has struck his own reservoir of Texas tea. Let's just hope the success doesn't push him to the same lengths as Plainview's.