I must confess that I had high expectations prior to seeing There Will Be Blood, and from the previews I expected Daniel Day-Lewis’ character to be much more violent that he proved to be. This film is an amazing tour-de-force for Mr. Day-Lewis; he is on screen in almost every scene and so absorbed into Daniel Plainview that you forget this is acting. Plainview is a man who not only distrusts the world but has nothing but suspicious contempt for those around him. Paradoxically, he wants to portray himself as a family man and palms off the child of one of his deceased workers as his son (nicely played by Dillon Freasier). He cares nothing about having a family but reacts violently to the mere suggestion that he is less than a perfect parent.
Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance is so large that it tends to dominate those of his fellow-actors but Paul Dano as Eli Sunday, the local preacher of the Church of the Third Resurrection is equally amazing. Like Plainfield, Eli is performing for the local townspeople and there is a fiery scene where Eli casts out a “ghost” that is giving elderly woman arthritis. An interesting performance is turned in by Kevin J. O’connor as Plainview’s presumed long-lost half-brother. The meekness of O’Connor’s performance is quite a contract to Day-Lewis’ and for a moment in the film Plainview has somebody who he really believes to be family and gives him a job. Cairn Hinds has a small role as Plainview’s right-hand man, the one he sends on errands he does not want to do and, unfortunately does not have enough screen time.
The film begins with no dialogue for several minutes as we watch Day-Lewis digging what seems to be his first oil well alone, gradually changing into a scene years later where he has a small crew of workers. The music by Jonny Greenwood is quite a pastiche with the music sometimes a bit disruptive and sometimes very interesting. I was a bit puzzled by his use of Violin Concerti by Mendelssohn and Bruch as they did not really fit the scene for me.