A Whole Lot Of Nothing

Rating: 5/10 (25 February 2008)

THERE WILL BE BLOOD
There Will Be Blood,is a film that has picked up a lot of notoriety for the past few months, picking up steam towards it's inevitable Oscar success. However, there has been a significant movement of critics who's opinions of the movie lie further downstream than originally thought.
The film is about, well not much at all to be honest. Daniel Day-Lewis is Daniel Plainview, a man obsessed with the oil trade just after the turn of the century(1900's). The film follows his acquisition of a new property and the drilling of oil that follows.
Daniel Day -Lewis, who is probably collecting an Oscar as I write this, has received a lot of acclaim for his performance, which to be honest is rather undue. A decent portrayal is most certainly there, but through Daniel Day-Lewis and the script we're never allowed to get into any sort of relationship or suchlike with the character. It's only in the second half of the film that we really get a sense of quality performance, which whilst above average, gives nothing exceptional as the viewer feels nothing either way for the character.
The writing is rather on the dull side. Most of the screen time is taken up by mid-shots of actors staring blankly, or uttering each line of dialogue several times over. Whilst there are moments of creative writing and impelling speeches, the overall outcome is pretty much detached from the viewer.
To consider the point of this film is a very interesting notion, as Daniel Plainview fails to develop as a character at any stage of the film, and the narrative itself fails to offer the viewer something to take away in terms of a message or even portrayal of the story itself. Cinematography offers us no greater meaning, no further insight in this filmic world or even reflections of our own. This lack of any real substance leaves the film feeling rather empty overall, with a few semi-emotional scenes spattered throughout which is really just not even close to being enough.
Direction is simply wonderful at a few select moments, but the emphasis is on few. Generally we find ourselves staring at the image of a character doing not an awful lot, or an uneventful scene overlaid with unfocused music ranging from orchestral to electronica, in a repetitive pattern. Moments have been described as almost 'Welles-esque', but these sections are far from Citizen Kane, as a few minutes of something between homage and the plagiarised meets our eyes. The ending almost like something straight out Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange'. All in all, director Paul Thomas Anderson shows not style of his own nor consistency as most of the film remains void of directorial mastery.
Overall, There Will Be Blood is a definite let down, over two and a half hours with a few impressive scenes and one solid performance, but nothing else at all. The movie feels like an empty egg shell without the substance of a yoke inside, very much lacking in all departments and hugely disappointing. Not without it's qualities however, but certainly nothing special whatsoever.