CLEMENTINE'S REVIEWS

10th November 2009
There Will be Blood (2007)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillion Freasier


Once a poor and struggling worker, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is now a successful oil prospector with a calculating greed and ruthless tactics. After being approached by a young man selling information, Daniel follows the lead to a small town whose inhabitants are unaware of the extent of the valuable oil they're sitting on. Despite the warning by the local priest Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) of proceeding without a blessing from the church, the oil drilling begins and a so does a series of unfortunate events.

I cannot describe how phenomenal this soundtrack is. Scene after scene is matched with the most nail bitingly ulcer-inducing music - in a good way. The anticipation! Unfortunately the score wasn't able to be nominated for some major awards as it featured some pre-existing work alongside the majority of the fascinating score crafted by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood.

Yes, I gave this 11/10 for acting. Daniel Day-Lewis inhabits his role with a fearsome ferocity. A year in preparation for this role and a focus on a number of inspirations really delivers a powerful and disturbing Day-Lewis performance. However, we've all come to expect the highest calibre from Day-Lewis, so it was Paul Dano's Eli Sunday who took me by incredible surprise. He had me falling off my seat with his complex performance, whose first fifteen minutes I keep thinking 'Wait, is he supposed to be like that? Really?' His scenes with Day-Lewis jump off the screen, and scuttle into the dark crevices of painful repression.

This really is a film about the evil of Daniel Plainview. He is a manipulative, competitive and contemptuous man whose greed is the source of all suffering around him.

Verdict: Daniel Day-Lewis paints an intense portrait of evil set to a brilliant score.