4 out of 5

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

“There Will Be Blood” is a dark, very personal film following a man – Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis – during the latter portion of his life as he changes from would-be steel-miner to oil man to would-be father to oil magnate to… Whatever it is he irredeemably becomes. Coming out at the same time as the Coen’s “No Country,” “Blood” explores similar themes of evil and obsession, but without the one or two steps of extraction from the plot that allows the viewer to breathe. “Blood” is intensely involved in Plainview, in tunnel-vision fashion, excising most of the film down to almost solely him and the one or two stragglers which cause significant interactions in his life and allow “revelations” to the audience as to his persona. Anderson has always explored darker themes (even in “Punch Drunk Love”) but rarely has it been so lean as it is in this film. And juxtaposed with the beautiful shots and scenery, everything feels grimy, and weighty, dripped in the slick beauty of the oil which the character mines. There is no love angle, there is no remorse, there is no redemption. When the character owns up to his encroaching darkness, it may seem sudden, but it has been there throughout. This has the confidence of an Anderson film, but don’t be surprised by the lack of his usual players (in front of the camera), as this seemed to be the director working through a darker period of his own. It is an excellent character study, and a damned bleak movie. You might not connect with the characters, but you cannot not watch it, and it… just unravels before you, and it begins, and it ends. It is imperfect by nature and theme, and thus cannot be five stars. But if you can tolerate not smiling – or even thinking (it is almost a numbing experience) – after a movie has ended, you, as a movie fan, owe it to yourself to watch this.