Eye-candy, but with substance!

Rating: 9/10 (16 August 2016)

"There will be blood" is about Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who is someone in the oil industry. In this movie we follow him as he is growing his oil-empire.
The movie is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who has previously directed "The Master", a movie that I really wanted to see, and after this movie even more. If it wasn't clear yet, Paul Thomas Anderson did an amazing job at directing "There will be blood", he also wrote the screenplay for the movie, but more on that later. Anderson is not only a good director, but also a good visionary director. This went hand in hand with the cinematography, which created stunning shots, that showcased the gorgeous scenery. It was no surprise to me that the movie won an Oscar for the cinematography. The cinematography was done by Robert Elswit, just to give him some credit. The director is really good at showing set pieces in a cinematic way, for example the fire putting out scene. This was one fantastic scene, with beautiful cinematography and set design. But to only make this scene better, the soundtrack kicks in. The soundtrack was really extraordinary. It was original - not reused - and fitted the movie well. In the first place the soundtrack didn't really feel right for me, but after seeing the fire putting out scene, I was convinced that the soundtrack really fitted the movie well. I previously talked about the directing in wide, open spaces and sets, but the movie begins with a small set. A small thing I want to mention is that a big part of the first act is completely silent. This is a ballsy thing to do, but just by visual story-telling my attention was kept. Really impressive. Let's go back to the small set. In that set Anderson really makes you feel claustrophobic, and sucks you into the movie almost immediately. Weird that the director didn't get the Oscar, but I don't know the competition, so I can't really say.
The acting is by far one of the better trades this movie has to offer. This can also be seen by the Oscar that "There will be blood" has won. In case you're to lazy to check, I'll say it here. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for his role as Daniel Plainview. And, was it deserved? Yes, yes indeed. Daniel Day-Lewis is an amazing actor and proved that in "Lincoln" again. Also the fact that he has won three academy awards is a good argument to prove that he is a very good actor. In this movie he absolutely nailed the role of Daniel Plainview. He is convincing as the character and was able to show his emotions very well. Even in the end, when he has kind of lost his sanity, he still preforms very well. The other actor who had quite a big role was Paul Dano's character. Him I didn't like as much as Daniel Day-Lewis, but that's just maybe because Day-Lewis overshadowed him. I also found that Paul Dano over-acted a tiny bit, but this is not really a bad thing, as shown in the preaching scenes. More on these later. The last person I want to mention here is the actor of HW. He was not to great. I didn't really felt the "power" of his performance, and I will definitely not remember something of his performance.
The screenplay was, as said previously, written by the director himself. And was this part of the movie good? Well, you guessed it: yes. The Anderson has written fantastic monologues that were said brilliantly by the characters. which brings me to the characters. They were all interesting and multi-layered. Especially the character of Daniel Plainview. Plainview undergoes a lot of character progression and also has a character arc. His character has so much layers, that it is incredible that Daniel Day-Lewis was able to pull this role of, which is the more impressing. Plainview was also unpredictable, which made his character more engaging. Another thing I want to mention is how different the Plainview is from Eli. Eli is religious and Plainview is an atheist for one example. This only made the scene with the both of them interesting to watch, because you wanted to know how the scene would end, due to the unpredictability of Plainview. The story overall was solid and fun to watch. The ending, however, I found a bit odd, and not fitting. I liked that Plainview has lost his sanity, but where he kills Eli was just odd to me. I get his motivation, but it wasn't satisfying enough for me.
In the end "There Will Be Blood" was an excellent film. The movie was visually stunning, but it was more than eye-candy: It had substance. The story and characters were solid and the acting only helped to improve on this.
9.25/10