Disturbingly Good

Rating: 10/10 (27 January 2008)

I just saw this movie and I have to say it was incredible. Daniel Day Lewis gives I think the best performance of his life. Better than My Left Foot. In my opinion one of the greatest performances of all time and definitely the best of this century so far. He fully embraced this role and completely transformed into the awful, despicable and just plain evil character that was Daniel Plainview. The score was so haunting and created such an eerie feeling that you knew some terrible things were to come. The direction was superb in the fact that you never lost that uncomfortable feeling when day lewis was on screen. Anderson created a world that embodied a man's ruthless pursuit of money, power and control of what he thought was rightfully his. The opening scene was great because you didn't get any sense of Plainview's true character. He seemed like a normal person who did a selfless thing in taking in the child of a dead man. I think this is where the score was so key because it prevented you from feeling calm or at ease with this man or his situation. I loved the progression of Plainview's character throughout the movie. He became more soulless and kept on getting glimpses of his true ruthless nature. The secondary characters were great as well. Dano as the evangelic preacher and Plainview's son did a fantastic job as well. I expect great things from Dano as he matures as an actor. You could just feel his cowardice every time he was near Day Lewis's character. I could go on and on about this movie it was fantastic. Very disturbing and not a movie you can just flop in the DVD player, but truly brilliant.