Kudos on bringing acting back to the American Cinema

Rating: 9/10 (25 February 2008)

I was lucky to see There Will Be Blood the day before the Oscar decision and I went to see it again Oscar morning because I was fascinated by Daniel Day Lewis's tour da force performance that I was convinced would win best of the year according to the Academy. I went back to read other commentary on here in regard to There Will Be Blood today and was amazed to see such widely divergent reactions.
Be that as it may, I assure readers out there that this ensemble was allowed by this director to get on camera truly amazing acting performances that another director or producer would surely have edited out in order to "tighten" the film. It's to Anderson's credit in recognizing the sheer artistry of these performances that some of the most fantastic on screen acting I've seen in quite awhile was allowed to remain in this film.
Truly, acting has taken second seat to control freak directors who wouldn't know what the word means and use actors like mannequins in their "visions" or what we've been spoon fed with Hollywood pictures in the last couple of decades amounting to theme park experiences where acting again takes a back seat. It's not that a lot of talent isn't out there, it's that anything remotely out of control and unexpected with an actor is usually ending up on the cutting room floor because it takes up on screen time that's believed to slow down the pace of the story (often true) or that seems superfluous otherwise.
We don't have a lot of directors anymore who are intimately familiar with what method acting is or how to work with well trained actors like we had in the days of Kazan.
So many kudos to this film for allowing the life back into performances on this scale.
Lewis's work was a result of his lucky pairing with Dano. The language of emoting these two actors have are at such odds in this film that watching them together playing out their character's destinies was downright shocking to see. This was because both of them turned in CONSUMMATE SKILLED ACTING PERFORMANCES. Lewis's performance was not possible without the playing off against Dano's character. That's how acting works.
For those thinking there wasn't the motivation for where the characters start and where they end up...I believe there are a lot of angles from which to study this film...believe me I don't often go back to watch a film twice in a row but I had to with this one. Start with the name of the work and then look at what is the obvious turning point of the film when Eli suggests he be allowed to bless the well. Look at the name of the father of the Sunday family and other clues to what Sinclair was telling us with this story which is, after all, allegorical...really listen to the screenplay and what actually comes out of these character's mouths...it could almost be said to hit you over the head with its modern take on what should be a familiar morality tale if you seek it.