John's Movie Musings

I caught There Will Be Blood yesterday afternoon and I still have no idea what I think about it. I'm hoping that as I type out my thoughts, I'll come to some conclusion by the end.

What I do know is that Daniel Day-Lewis is a man among men. The dude puts out one or two movies per decade (it seems) and every time I have a "Why doesn't he do more movies" conversation with whoever I'm with. There Will Be Blood is no exception. He's awesome. In fact, he's up for an Oscar and I'd be surprised if he didn't get it.

But what about the rest of the movie? Well, it's up for eight Academy Awards (including Mr. Day-Lewis's) so the critics love it. It's entertaining to watch, but it does without a lot of traditional storytelling devices. There is no main villain and no major themes to explore. Greed carries through a lot of the story, as is religion (through the fringe, almost cult-ish elements of Charismatic Christianity), but I didn't come away with any central point. It's just a story about an Oil man in the early 1900s and the ups and downs of his life.

I'm not really sure how to recommend this. I was entertained through the entire thing (it's over two and a half hours long), and I can't think of a scene that wasn't interesting. But this movie is up for Best of 2007. Really? Maybe I've watched one too many Die Hard's or Rocky's. Or maybe the critics have watched too few. Either way, their idea of a great movie and mine don't match up.

It'll be a few months before this one comes out on DVD, but it's certainly worth a rental. If you check it out, let me know what you thought of it.

Grade: B-