Review: There Will Be Blood

I went ahead yesterday and saw There Will Be Blood, the new movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It was in fact better than I was worried it might be, but still not a truly great movie as some of the hype had suggested. Yes, Mr. Day-Lewis' acting was spectacular and as cinema art the film was compelling, but all put together I would not classify it as a "blockbuster" mainstream movie.

All sorts of positive adjectives apply to this movie which qualify it a piece of fine art, but that does not make it a hard-core, mainstream "hit" for general audiences.

As a human interest story, it was rather depressing. Not the sort of movie to raise your spirits and increase your faith in humanity.

As a business historical perspective story, it was enlightening.

As raw cinema, it was visually stunning.

An open question is how this movie would have come off without Mr. Day-Lewis' doing the vast bulk of the heavy lifting.

I am glad that I saw it and would be willing to see it again, especially since it is filled with lots of nuance that can be easy to miss or fail to fully appreciate in a single sitting. In fact, it is the kind of film where you could endlessly dissect (in a positive way) even single scenes.

-- Jack Krupansky