Eye Candy #183 - "There Will Be Blood"

There Will Be Blood: The other “big” contender for Best Picture last year, and winner for several other Oscars, Paul Thomas Anderson directed this film about the beginning of the California oil boom and Daniel Plainview, a wildcatter who finds himself (directly and indirectly) in the middle of it.  Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) scrapes his first oil well from the earth with his own hands, and never stops there, letting his own greed and competitiveness drive him and alienate what little family he has, his business partners, his competitors, and his friends.  His nemesis ends up being a local fire-and-brimstone preacher Eli Sunday.  An exceedingly odd, odd film, it’s very plain after just one viewing why “No Country for Old Men” won Best Picture - “There Will Be Blood” is one of the most self-conscious “We’re creating Art here!” films I’ve seen in the last 10 years.  Don’t’ get me wrong - it’s pretty to look at,  feels epic in scope, but the energy level is flat and it never gives you a single reason to even care about Plainview.  Sure, Day-Lewis’ performance is strong but it’s also extravagant (his speech pattern is based on John Huston, which is all well good, as long as there is a REASON for doing so other than its not your average usual speech pattern).   And there are other weird flourishes as well that seem more likely to end up in a Coen Bros. movie than in Paul Thomas Anderson (though many of Anderson’s are quirky, not all of them; look at “Boogie Nights” versus “Punch Drunk Love”).  Most importantly - what is the POINT of this film?  I don’t know, unless it’s something simplistic like “Greed is bad” (which is certainly in evidence, just seems way too easy for a choice). So it’s an interesting picture to watch, but it is hardly the best picture that came out last year, by far.  The right movie won for Best Picture.  Woodchuck sez, “Didn’t live up to the hype.  Good, but not great.”