A poor idea that is well executed.

Rating: 6/10 (8 February 2011)

There Will Be Blood is an odd film. So many things about it are extraordinary, but the end product is not. The set piece, the vast landscape of Texas at the turn of the twentieth century is an amazing spectacle, helped by great cinematography. The soundtrack is strange and uncanny, and does greatly add to the atmosphere of the film. It is entirely deserved of its Academy Award. But not much else, from what I can see, is great about this film. It's not a bad film however. I watched this film in February 2011, roughly four years after it came out. When it did come out, it had an uproarious reception with several critics calling it the best movie of that year, even going so far as being deemed as classic. Just a quick look at its Wikipedia article shows the love it has had endowed upon it. This all meant I had very high expectations, and ultimately, it did not even nearly reach them.
Set over a thirty one year period, from 1896 to 1927, There Will Be Blood is a story about one man's lust for money. Daniel Plainview is an ambitious man. He is smart, and he is ruthless. He is self made. He has many associates, but he has no friends. Nor does he want any. His only companion is a son called H.W., but H.W. is more of a selling point to Plainview, who wins people over to his ideas by portraying himself as a family man. He uses this methodology when winning over the town of Little Boston to allow him to drill. He promises riches for the town, but all they get is corruption. A young religious pastor named Eli seems to be the only one willing to stand up for anything, but he too lets his lust and greed get to him.
This film to me, is an example of one with a poor idea that is well executed. The script isn't great. It's very much all over the place, jumping around back and forth but never really landing anywhere. It starts at the start, but never really ends at the end. Not in such a way as No Country for Old Men or A Serious Man, as both of those films leave you thinking very hard about what the film meant. There Will Be Blood doesn't. Another fault I would find with the script, and possibly a more inimical one, was the development of Plainview's character. The movie is practically a biopic of an imagined character, and he is very well portrayed as a greedy, ambitious, angry man. But that is all. The character never learns anything of his mistakes. Which is all fine and well, because some characters never learn, but when you're expected to invest so much in this one, you expect to be able to relate to him some bit. I couldn't, as Plainview had no soul. He has nobody in his life, and he doesn't yearn for anyone. He's not human.
The antidote to Plainview is Eli Sunday, but here is another character that's difficult to love, due to his love of his religion polarized with his own self corruption. Maybe if Plainview didn't need an antidotal character I'd enjoy Eli's character more, but it's sadly not the case.
Paul Thomas Anderson masked this poor script very well with above average direction. I cannot fault the direction and cinematography. The costume was wonderful also, I always was a fan of old timey American drab. Daniel Day-Lewis is an extremely good actor and he doesn't let up here, it's just hard to love his character. Which unfortunately is needed in this kind of film.
While I might disagree with him sometimes, the great Roger Ebert truly sums up my feelings on this film in the final paragraph of his review:
""There Will Be Blood" is the kind of film that is easily called great. I am not sure of its greatness. It was filmed in the same area of Texas used by "No Country for Old Men," and that is a great film, and a perfect one. But "There Will Be Blood" is not perfect, and in its imperfections (its unbending characters, its lack of women or any reflection of ordinary society, its ending, its relentlessness) we may see its reach exceeding its grasp. Which is not a dishonorable thing."
This movie is by no means bad, but it sought to be greater and more involving than it was.