There will be boredom

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2008)

If fantastic acting, cinematography and direction made a great movie then this is a great movie. In fact, this movie in perfect in every respect... except the storyline. The story really plods. It's 158 minutes of slow, and not very interesting, storytelling.
But, boy, the acting really is something. Daniel Day-Lewis is brilliant but so is the rest of the cast. DDL's performance is so good that it commands your attention and conceals the movie's great weakness. You're so mesmerised by him that it's easy to overlook the fact that the storyline is uninteresting. In fact, there isn't a storyline as such. It's just a chronological sequence of events showing how this "oil man" makes his fortune and uses people along the way. There's no depth (to the story), no great insights.
EDIT: Watched it on TV last night and liked it much more. This movie is maybe deeper than it first appears. I changed my vote to 9/10 from 7/10.