For “There Will Be Blood,” there will be Oscars. Or, at least, there should be.
Meriting special honor, one element in particular establishes this unconventional and spellbinding period epic by maverick filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (“Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia”). That element is the achievement of a genius chameleon. Daniel Day-Lewis further proves here why he continues to rank, hands down, as the greatest actor of his generation. He gives the single most committed and transformative big-screen performance of the last 12 months in today’s unforgettable character study of blind ambition, gritty ingenuity and emotional cluelessness.
By making fictional antihero Daniel Plainview the human embodiment of the initial history of the American oil business and, by extension, the larger capitalist mind-set, Day-Lewis and Anderson have created a portrait in the vein and perhaps even in the caliber of “Citizen Kane.” Set mostly in the early 20th century on the untapped fields of central California, director-writer Anderson loosely bases his screenplay on a portion of the 1927 novel “Oil!” by legendary muckraker Upton Sinclair.
Before the plot’s metaphor-rich main conflict is set up, in which Plainview faces off against a religious counterpart/antagonist, there’s a gripping, dialogue-free opening 20 minutes which details the dangerous trial-and-error that went into mining and oil excavation in those primitive days. After that remarkable bit of silent film acting by Day-Lewis, he wows us even further when he finally speaks. He creates not only a new accent but also a new depth, cadence and tone to his voice that make it wholly unrecognizable from anything that has ever come out of the artist’s mouth before.
The story chronicles the protagonist’s rise through his hucksterism, scheming and instinct fueled by a crazed competitiveness. It focuses on a centerpiece project to buy land cheaply from poor, unsuspecting farmers then to pump and transport the oil while cutting out the big monopoly conglomerate of the time. In the same way that Plainview exploits others though fraud and sociopathic fervor, the corrupt local evangelical Eli Sunday (played with a disturbing passion by Paul Dano) exploits their faith. As the prospector-turned-tycoon confronts Eli’s threat over the passing years, he must also deal with the only other distraction that pulls his hardened heart away from business: his young adopted son, H.W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier).
“There Will Be Blood” is an ugly peek behind the curtain of Oz; it busts any idealized Horatio Alger vision about the self-made men who advanced the country into the modern industrial era. Without benefit of intricate subplots, the visionary drama astounds through intense characters, a jarringly reverberant soundtrack (courtesy of Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood), and indelible cinematographic imagery both of grand vistas and tortured faces.
‘There Will Be Blood’
*****
» Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier
» Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
» Rated R for some violence
» Running time: 158 minutes
