Melodrama masquerading as an Epic

Rating: 5/10 (29 January 2008)

This thing is so painful...well, it hurt to watch. Not for unseemly visuals or underhanded doings (there are plenty, though), but because it is nothing more than a long, hateful picture about a man unworthy of being in EVERY SINGLE shot in a movie as he is in this snoozer. And it is stupid, unfair, and absolutely DULL to put an audience through the ordeal of staring this b@stard down. Not since Scarface have I been so disgusted...and, again, not by the content but rather by the hubris and self-reverence of the director. I mean, at least we knew WHY Pacino was who he was. Not here. This man (D-Day Lewi's character) is a cold-hearted businessman and a scumbag, and his faux-preacher counterpart is no better, end of story. Nothing more or less can be wrung from There will be Blood than you could from the NYTimes or WSJournal Business section. Pretty pictures, though.