Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (23 February 2008)

I'm giving this a 4 because not being compelled to leave in the middle of a movie is reason enough to give it some credit. Yes, I was mildly entertained. Mostly by Daniel Day Lewis's performance. I think his talent became more obvious as the film dragged (and i mean dragged) on to portray his descent into madness. (Is that a spoiler? If so, sorry.) After it ended, my wife turned to me and said "How much did we pay to see this?". I then realized we just wasted 18 dollars. It was a cold and stormy night, and sitting by the fire with a good book would have been a better use of our time.
My problems with this movie:

Soundtrack was annoying and repetitive. They used that discordant violin track heard in the beginning of the movie (for no apparent reason) too many times. Once would have been enough. And when the derrick caught on fire, the score sounded like it was lifted from Apocalypto or something on Animal Planet. Totally out of place. - Paul Dano - Terrible performance. I'm not saying he's a bad actor, he was terrific in Little Miss Sunshine, but utterly unconvincing in his role. - Other than those two, who else had any memorable role? Is this just a platform for DDL's talent? - Why weren't there any roles for women in this movie other than bit parts. In fact, I think the longest line of any woman in the movie is "Yes, Father". - Story line. Well, what story line. Local boy makes good. Man goes crazy. Seriously, I saw nothing in the relationship between DDL and Dano. It was just there to add another 30 unneeded minutes to this film.

My advice, read the reviews. If you want to see a great performance by DDL, go see it. If you want to be captivated by a movie with a great plot, soundtrack and supporting acting roles, fuhgeddaboudit.