There Will Be Blood is not an easy watch - let's get that clear at the start. If you're looking for an evening's undemanding entertainment (and let's face it, we all need that some times) move along and try something in the next screen. Its starts with about 20 minutes without a word being spoken. The discordant score creates a tense, uneasy almost threatening atmosphere. It features moments that in illustrating the brutality of the early oil industry, will make you wince. There are no clear good guys in this film and it ends on a note that is either perfect or completely wrong - I'm still not sure.
But then director Paul Thomas Anderson has never been one to make easy choices. He followed up his multi-stranded masterpiece Magnolia with an Adam Sandler film (Punch Drunk Love) and now this. Its not easy but it frequently borders on greatness. Daniel Day Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, an oil man at the turn of the last century who adopts a young boy after his father is killed in a drilling accident. Plainview's motives are never entirely clear. He is brought into conflict with hellfire and brimstone preacher Eli Sunday (Little Miss Sunshine's Paul Dano) - both men acting parts as they try to win the upper hand in a power struggle.
Daniel Day Lewis' performance is superb - more mannered than you would usually expect from him, but he's playing a man who's all about a projected public image with little clue as to what lies beneath the surface. That Dano, not only lives with the pace, but challenges for the upper hand in most scenes is a testament to his talent. Together they make these not very likeable men watchable and interesting. The whole is shot stunningly and often beautifully, deservedly picking up the Oscar for cinematography.
Overall - 4.5/5 Another great film from Anderson - not easy to watch, but shot through with brilliance.
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