A towering performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as corrupt oil man...

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2008)

Blood, oil and religion seem to be the heated topics for this version of Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil", and the presentation is starkly realistic from beginning to end, with DANIEL DAY-LEWIS giving another one of his towering performances in the central role of a corrupt, guilt-ridden man who can't talk about his evil deeds.
His antagonist is a preacher (PAUL DANO) of hellfire and damnation, played with an oily mixture of naiveté and money madness, who wants his fair share of the wealth on his doorstep. It's really the battle between these two men that grips most of the story and leads to a startling climax.
While all the performances are valid enough, it's a shame to see CIARIN HINDS so wasted in a role that barely gives him a chance to utter more than a few lines as a steadfast friend. More prominent in the supporting cast are DILLON FREASIER as the boy adopted by Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) when his real father is killed in a mining accident toward the beginning of the story. The boy is led to believe that he is the real son, only because Day-Lewis wants to use him and his innocent face as a way to secure deals. When the boy is a grown man and wants to move away with his new bride, Day-Lewis ruthlessly exposes the truth about him being an orphan and banishes him from his life with hateful curses.
All of this is never fully explained, but we do know that he has a hatred for most people which he openly admits to a man who poses as his long lost brother Henry (KEVIN J. O'CONNOR). Here too, we can sense a dangerous relationship built on lies and moving toward a violent climax.
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS inhabits his role with great intensity and although he is said to base his speech pattern on John Huston, he looks and sounds like he's chanelling Walter Huston as he appeared in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" as the old prospector. There are moments when his facial expression reflects the sort of penetrating gaze and wicked gleam in his eyes that Walter Huston had. It's almost uncanny. At any rate, Day-Lewis certainly deserved his Best Actor Oscar for this gripping film, stark but relentlessly moving and sometimes emotionally draining to watch.