I just saw There Will Be Blood.
Maybe my expectations were set too high. Maybe I expected something differant.
I was disappointed.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The movie was beautiful. The direction was outstanding and P.T. Anderson has once again proven to be a master behind the camera. Daniel Day Lewis was perfection, as usual. This man just won the SAG Best Actor Award and deserves the same recognition at the Oscars. I would say Anderson deserves best director as well.
But the film left me cold. I don’t mind the leasurly pace the film takes. I feel that a film as expertly crafted as this one deserves to move at its own pace and let the final resolution answer for the time spent watching it. There lies my problem.
I feel that the destruction of the character of Daniel Plainview was well done. The movie reminds me of Giant, the classic James Dean epic. I see many similarities between the downward spiral of the two men. What I don’t know if I liked was the destruction of all those around him. I understand that it was something that was needed to show his characters complete amorality. Yet the scene with his grown son really soured me. The final scene with Eli was something straight out of a Coen Brothers film. No one in this film received redemption and everyone was doomed to a dour end.
As I said this is all necessary for this film to succeed on the level that it has. If a happy ending was tacked onto the film it would have been a failure. The story as it was told is a masterful adaptation and one of the best films of the year.
My favorite movie of all time is Magnolia. I am a huge fan of P.T. Anderson and anxiously await all news surrounding his filmmaking. There Will Be Blood was a beautiful, sprawling epic that borders on excellence.
I just don’t know if I liked it.