Over rated.

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2009)

I kept waiting for this film to draw me into the story, to make me feel something! Day-Lewis' interchange with the preacher during the final scene & to a lesser extent during his 'confession' of his sins in the church seemed to me like something out of a bad Monty Python sketch. The man who see's the worst in people and has a rage in him just simmering below the surface always threatening to overflow, lacked the physical presence in him or the cool articulate menace that he brought to his butcher character in G O NY to make me fear him or what he could do. I like to root for Daniel Day-Lewis and the characters he portrays in film, Last of the Moahicans & Crucible come to mind. This character was contemptible in every respect, except his uncompromising, unscrupulous lust for money & power. I guess that was the point, I dunno. From the early scenes he appeared to be a caring family man, I do not fully understand how he came to think so ill of the boy he was raising after the accident deprived him of his hearing. "This picture is a very accurate depiction of the oil refining business of the time" So What? I'm here to watch a film, to be entertained!, if I want to find out all about oil I'll watch a discovery channel special or hire a book at the local library! I guess from the trailer, the awards & the way some friends lavished praise upon this picture, I committed a sin I almost never commit anymore: I got my hopes up about a film. Boring, simplistic and by the numbers, Very Disappointed.