What is this mishmash of self-indulgent scenes all about?

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2008)

There are 2 things that disquieted me after watching this movie:
1) Despite the absolute dryness of the plot, it is rated so highly by critics.
2) Everyone who watched it admitted its boring, but they still said its a good. Talk about influences...
This is by no means a poor film, but its definitely one of the most overrated films I have ever seen.
There are many scenes that can simply be removed without having any impact to the film. In fact, after the atrocious 2 hour and 40 minutes, I still could not feel anything or tell you what the movie is about. I have absolutely no connection or understanding of the contradicted character Daniel. For a film that revolves entirely around an individual, thats quite an underachievement.
This film has no soul. While it is a character study, but many of its scenes are so drawn out that the impact of the acting is sometimes drowned out by the seemingly senseless wandering of the camera. You see many scenes of characters walking in vast barren lands, standing around, waiting and doing nothing in a variety of scenes. Yes, the scenes are very believable, because they are so mundane. If you put all those scenes together, you will have a decent documentary about oil drilling in 1900s.
Yet, the film happens to be a mish mash of scenes that lead to nowhere. I waited till the end, expecting a scene of absolute emotional explosion, but non ever come.
Music at times was good, but at times was simply incongruous to the atmosphere of the scene. A good musical score is supposed to bring us closer to the atmosphere of the scene, but the scores in this movie often achieve the exact opposite. You got shaken out of the scene and can't help but wonder "why did they put this weird tune in there?" The indulgent cinematographic attempt to earn an award nomination is all too obvious... so much so that it came across as pretentious, excessive and sometimes painfully out of place.
That being said, the movie is not without its merits. Daniel has delivered a consistent performance throughout the movie. Excellenet acting, but certainly not to the level of "perfection" that many people claim. Its hard to act a character that is so unreal. Yet, when you only have meaningless drawn out scenes in a barren land, audience can't help but pay attention to the actors. In this case, its all good. Because thats the film's only saving grace.