you're too young & eager to love

Daniel Day Lewis has a tendency to play calloused characters. I hesitate to say that he plays the villain, because I genuinely think differently. More often than not, his characters are motivated by greed, ambition, selfishness. A fault, sure, but it doesn’t necessarily make them the villain. Machiavelli would agree; his characters are doing what they need to in order to persevere and survive. In that case, Darwin would probably agree too. He rarely seems to play any male that isn’t flawed. In The Crucible, John Proctor has sinned and must redeem himself. Ultimately, I love the character, but you can’t honestly say he’s a purely good guy. His Guido, from Nine, is loveable and charming but, ultimately, selfish – he has to find redemption as well. Even In The Name of the Father stars a character that, although put under horrible, unfair conditions, is in the beginning a reckless and self-centered boy.

So, it’s safe to say that I am used to Daniel Day Lewis presenting a character that is difficult to like. For most people, anyway. I’m a fan of the hard, calloused types.

That’s definitely the case for Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview, in There Will Be Blood. I can understand the character, because the movie does such a great job of explaining his motivations and reasoning. We understand why he is the way he is – we understand why we dislike him.

With that said … I’m not sure if I’ll watch this movie again.

I was told it was slow, and that is an understatement. I don’t mind the pacing, but even Daniel Day Lewis’ fantastic acting couldn’t enthrall me enough to keep my interest for the entire two and a half hour duration. I was bored for the majority of it, and I don’t get bored with his movies, ever. Maybe it was the story line? Because it centers so heavily on a personal battle between Plainview and a preacher, leaving the whole film with a religious subtext that, I thought, actually becomes more atheistically driven in the end. I tend to have difficulty dealing with Christianity when it’s a focal point of a film – that’s my flaw as the viewer.

The cinematography is beautiful. The music is perfect. The tension throughout the film between the characters is stark, noticeable. The kid that plays the preacher (whose name I forget) is wonderfully casted, spot-on. There are moments are great dialogue.

And yet …

And yet.

I would like to watch it again, because I firmly believe in second viewings, but I don’t know if I have the patience for it.