Simply Perfection

Rating: 10/10 (25 October 2008)

This movie captures the ruthlessness and greed of a period in American history that is hard to imagine in this day and age. Day Lewis plays an 'Oil Man' who will stop at nothing to make his fortune. His portrayal of Daniel Plainview is mesmerising; the man is seemingly without morality when it comes to his need to win in his ambitions - and not just win, but to ensure that nobody else succeeds in the process and to point out that he has won. His mannerisms and emotions seem iron-hard and harsh and you feel that just below the surface is a constant rage. We are never enlightened as to what made this man so deeply bitter and filled with hatred and although there are occasions where he appears to fleetingly feel remorse or sadness he quickly shakes them off. His nemesis throughout the movie is Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a self-congratulating and egotistical young lay preacher and faith healer. He dogs Plainview at every turn under the guise of his church but clearly for his own financial gain and self-aggrandisement.
To my mind, the slow and often quiet pace of this film only enhance the insight we get into the characters and harshness of those times. Both main characters are in essence morally corrupt and despicable in their own way and it is the niave, rustic and self-inflated manipulations of Eli Sunday contrasted against the worldly-wise, devious and brutal Daniel Plainveiw that gives this film a powerful underlying feeling of menace and the eventual spiritual destruction of both men.