Apartments in Mojacar
There are many self catering apartments in Mojacar, as well as hotels.

Film Review

03 December 2008 05:11 BST

There Will Be Blood

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, out February 8th in cinemas, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds, Dillon Freasier, running time 158 mines.

In a nutshell...

Blood for oil? You better believe it.

What's it all about?

Having transformed himself from a prospective silver miner - magnificently portrayed in the film's 15-minute wordless opening - into an oil baron, Daniel Plainview arrives in the hopeful Californian community of Little Boston, hell-bent on draining every resource from the tiny town.

With his son HW (Dillon Freasier) in tow as an effective marketing tool - family businesses being all the more appealing, of course - the terrifyingly amoral Plainview's lust for power brings him in to conflict with Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), the town's charismatic preacher.

Blood, oil, faith and family - all will be sacrificed.

Who's in it?

In his first role since starring in his wife Rebecca Miller's low-budget drama The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Daniel Day-Lewis seems almost destined to win his second Oscar with his astonishing portrayal of Daniel Plainview, with raw power constantly exuding from his John Huston-esque voice, labour-honed physique and fantastically malevolent moustache.

Little Miss Sunshine's Paul Dano proves why he is held in such high regard in Hollywood as the flawed Eli forced to watch his mini-empire crumble, while young Dillon Freasier - "a genuine cowboy", according to Day-Lewis - excels in his debut movie role as Plainview's son HW.

Magnolia helmer Paul Thomas Anderson based There Will Be Blood on Upton Sinclair's socialist tome Oil!, and while parallels with the modern importance of the black stuff are apparent, Anderson's skill is to suggest while flooding the screen with stunning imagery - wait for the explosion of the derrick - rather than bludgeoning us with allegory.

Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood also merits special mention for his bewitching, uncomfortable score, as gripping and fraught with anxiety as the film itself.

As an example...

"Ladies and gentlemen - if I say I'm an oil man you will agree. [beat] You have a great chance here – but bear in mind: you can lose it all if you're not careful." - Plainview

"What's this? Why don't I own this... why don't I own this?" - Plainview

"I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people." - Plainview

"There's a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!" - Plainview

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars?

As distinguished as his company in the best actor category remains, for Daniel Day-Lewis to miss out on the trophy at the 80th Academy awards would be a crime of epic proportions. Too few platitudes exist to truly do justice to his performance as Plainview, with every other actor in the piece all-but blown off the screen by his mesmerising presence. Power bursts from Plainview's every pore while his voice - based to some extent on that of directing legend John Huston - rolls with such mellifluous, malignant intent across Anderson's sun-drenched imagery that only the most detached of viewers will be capable of avoiding the feeling that one has been dropped smack-bang in the middle of oil boom California. This is a performance to make cinematic history and he must be named best actor.

What the others say

"Uncompromising, intelligent and searing cinema. Along with The Assassination of Jesse James… and No Country For Old Men, this is the best batch of Western-set dramas in decades. John Huston would have been proud." - Helen O'Hara, Empire

"It's sublime - beautiful and ghastly at once." - David Edelstein, New York Magazine

So is it any good?

It's not just good, it's outstanding. From the moment Jonny Greenwood's atonal score plunges us into Plainview's bruising struggles as a silver prospector and his sudden, unexpected step into fatherhood, we're no longer in 2008 but seemingly present in early 20th century California, watching the oil industry grow before our very eyes.

As Eli's brother Paul (also Dano) tips Plainview off to the wealth of oil just waiting to be plundered from Little Boston, we're well aware that this is a man for whom morals are barely worth considering. Yet no matter the severity with which he treats young HW (the brilliant Freasier), nor the openness with which he admits the utterly damaged nature of his soul, we cannot take our eyes off this most compelling of anti-heroes.

As for Anderson's direction... well, he may have finally surpassed the output of his idol Robert Altman. While the quirky excellence of Punch Drunk Love seemed a step away from the epic tendencies of his earlier works Boogie Nights and Magnolia, There Will Be Blood is a world apart entirely. It's as if some cinematic classic from the Golden Age has suddenly surfaced after 50 years to bestow its timeless delights on a modern audience.

It's never an entirely pleasant watch and it certainly feels a great deal longer than its 158 minutes. But with filmmaking this good and an acting performance to rank alongside the greatest in movie history, There Will Be Blood reminds us that the potential transcend art and seem part of our very history.

9/10

Lewis Bazley

To read the inthenews.co.uk interview with Daniel Day-Lewis, click here

To watch the There Will Be Blood trailer on inthenews.co.uk, click here

Test your film knowledge and win...