Overrated and disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (4 January 2008)

I was greatly disappointed by the film. While Daniel D. Lewis's acting is rather impressive, the rest of the movie is disappointing and it's not clear what the movie is about.
The screenplay is not cohesive - many scenes and facts are unexplained and don't make sense; Examples: the first ten minutes in which we see D.D.Lewis digging in a mining pit and injuring himself; Why does his son lose his speech despite the fact he only heart his hearing? Why does the son set the house on fire when Henry, the impostor brother appears? Why does Eli strike his father and how does this relate to the rest of the film?
The music was simply awful and was often irritating: squealing and screeching going on and on, repetitive noises, etc. In some scenes I felt as if the music was completely inadequate and taken from a cheap horror film.
I feel that the director focused on shooting beautiful shots and directing long, single shot scenes, but neglected the story underlying the movie and tying all pieces together. The film appears to be a combination of good parts that simply don't fit well together.