Movie
Review
There Will Be Blood
Can Daniel Day-Lewis Play a 21st Century American?
by: Reggie Eggert, for Entertainment
Kevin Smith's crusade against Paul Thomas Anderson has taken a fatal blow with the release of There Will Be Blood, a sprawling account of one man's lust for fortune during the peak of California's oil rush in the late 1800s.
The incomparable Daniel Day-Lewis portrays relentless oilman Daniel Plainview with such malicious authenticity that it's easy to understand why he takes so much time off between roles; it must be hell for him to commit to a character wholeheartedly for months and then go back to being himself, let alone prepare to portray someone else.
The film opens with a poor and desperate Plainview mining for valuable metals in the California hills. His search results in a hideously broken leg and large piece of silver. He cashes in the silver and starts his oil business, seeking to drain the state of every bit of black gold it holds. He carries his sweet-faced, if scary as fuck, son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) from town to town, looking to exploit communities that don't know shit from sunshine. He soon encounters Paul Sunday, an honest, industrious young man, looking to profit on the under discovered oil that bubbles from beneath his family's farm. For a nice finder's fee, Paul tells Plainview the name of the town from which he comes, and the saga unfolds.
Plainview has no trouble convincing dimwitted family man Abel Sunday that he should sell his farm over to him, but his ferociously religious son, Eli, want to up the stakes, demanding a significant donation to his burgeoning church. Plainview agrees to this, never follows through on his promise to Eli and all hell breaks loose. While the town is transformed by the influx of oil revenues over the course of the next few decades, Plainview's personal affairs regress horribly. H.W. has a horrible, debilitating accident, when an oil well catches fire, and a man believed to be Plainview's long lost brother complicates his life by dredging up old memories that were better left behind. All of the drama surrounding him eventually drives Plainview off the deep end.
Like every other P.T.A. film, this one may be inaccessible to a significant portion of moviegoers, but those who take the time to check it out will walk away feeling like Kevin Smith sucks balls.
