The Best of Daniel Day-Lewis

Such a genuine film. There's no exaggeration here, which is easy to do when a film is dealing with real-life people. Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a performance that cannot be lauded anymore than it already has. Knowing of his performance, I was surprised by Fricker's, who captured me with how quiet and reserved her character appeared to be, yet how strong and unyielding she proved to be as a mother and a woman. She demonstrates the true definition of what a mother should be.

What I was most surprised about when I heard about this at the beginning of the year, was that it was PTA who was doing it. I loved both Boogie Nights and Magnolia, and had been impartial to Punch-Drunk Love, but watching this the other day, I found such a striking difference between the then and now, and it was nice to see him wholly successful in it.

Day-Lewis give a grand performance mainly in a style that is not as bombastic or as pronounced as some of his other roles. Plainview's characteristics are there, yes, but you have to dig deep below the surface to find them. The greed he has for oil, for money, the hate he has for others is not as apparent like a Michael Douglas in Wall Street, Day-Lewis has formulated every sensation, every feeling of Plainview's and put it into the character's soul. The trueness of Plainview lies there waiting, it flashes very little, save the one time he lets his guard down to his "brother" - you can feel a difference, an honesty, a realness that is hollow which reverberates with a horse laugh and a glint in the eyes.
The voice captures me most thinking back to his performance now and I love the way Ebert puts it: "The voice of the oil man sounds made of oil, gristle and syrup. It is deep and reassuring, absolutely sure of itself, and curiously fraudulent. No man who sounds this forthright can be other than a liar."

The direction was fantastic: it doesn't feel overly wrought, like Anderson is trying to present you with an epic i.e. Atonement; the cinemtography is exquisitely handled (and better than most of the Oscar noms); and the musical score seems to win out as the show-stealer. It is eerie for the most part, and therefore shapes your view of scenes in a different way than if they had had the usual music treatment. The reason it is so effective in what it does is because it gives you a sound that is disconcerting, but when you look at the film, you go, "why should I be scared here?" When you get to the maniacal climax though, you realize what the music has been trying to tell you all along.

Brutal and long, but deft. One step short of an epic.

I would hardly call it a triumph of a film, something so steeped in psychology can only admirably be done in book form. Still, the film succeeds at least on surface level, and what we have on the surface level is a wonderfully directed film with great performances from the three leading actors. The music is what really caught me, I found it just beautiful throughout. A highly accomplished film that seems to keep its audience at a distance. It's beautiful to look at, but not very easy to relate to.

A great film that feels stuffy at first, but opens up with Scorsese's flair with the camera and some nice stylish touches cinematically. All three leads are great, but it is Day-Lewis who is just fantastic as always. The costume design, the art direction, and especially the music, which is at times haunting, are all fantastic additives. A minor Scorsese comparatively, but it is nice to see him step outside of his comfort zone and deliver something so self-assured.