Scenery Chewed, Hell Illuminated

Rating: 2/10 (20 January 2008)

I think that this is a guy film. It has all the requisite brutality, murky barren settings, a lot of oozing mud, a paucity of character development, a baby appearing out of nowhere and a couple of head-slapping scenes. Tom Cruise's uber-macho rant in Magnolia is like a prequel to this Paul Anderson film in which even a glimpse of a woman is hidden; although D.Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview is accused of sexual misbehavior by his adversary, it must have happened during the scenes where I had my hands over my eyes to escape the gratuitous ugliness. "There will be blood," which all critics are touting as The Best Thing Since The Crucifixion was like a two-and-a-half hour bodily assault with a large board.
The visually dull first part of the film had no dialogue; I was almost grateful because afterward Day-Lewis attempted some kind of weird heroic accent. Hardly an homage to anyone, it was a shot at sounding "Amurrican." Although greed was the Big Motivation in the film, there were hints of other possibilities never developed, like Daniel's raising someone else's kid and challenging Abel's beating his daughter. He was just All Greed, All the Time. The minimal plot was drearily predictable - well, Upton S. never was very big on plot. The many scenes shot in the unhelpful dark, the wicked beatings and some hit-me-over-the-head-I-don't-recognize-the devil-without-the-fire-and-brimstone business about good and evil must pass for 'symbolism' I suppose. Worst of all was Day-Lewis's leering and posturing (why did his limp appear long years after he fell in the mine?) that came right out of nineteenth century vaudeville - he was themustachio'd villain of melodrama. Poor Johannes Brahms - did he deserveto have his exquisite music behind that vicious ending?