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There Will Be Blood (2008)
Paul Thomas Anderson
Impression published on Tuesday, 2010-02-23 | Film | 3 stars
While most writer/directors have a mixed bag of habits--some endearing, some annoying and others neutrally idiosyncratic--Paul Thomas Anderson only has annoying habits.
Most annoyingly, it seems to be the case that whenever Fiona Apple's trademark, "tuxedo-and-tennis-shoes" arm-candy finds himself behind a typewriter or a camera, he can't stop himself from setting up incredibly tense drama and then pissing it away on interminable moralizing and tedious "stylized" navel-gazing. It's like the dude has two personalities: one is Frank "TJ" Mackey--winning the battle of the bush, firing pearls at you--and the other is Donnie Smith, the maladjusted former-quiz-kid who has a lot of love to give but no emotional "off" button. One part of him writes scintillating dialog and sets up riveting conflicts; the other part of him wastes yards of film and gallons of ink showing people making pained expressions, staring wistfully into the distance, giving long speeches about nothing and generally squandering the tension that the other PTA did such an expert job creating.
Anderson's ability to gradually ratchet up the tension, combined with his habitual reluctance to write or direct decisive, sudden, concluding action is the cinematic equivalent of the prick tease and, call me what you want to call me, I was raised in the West according to the Aristotelian dramatic paradigm (i.e. the long build to the single, explosive climax) and when I don't get my dramatic climax, I am not a happy camper.
Relatedly (and slightly less annoyingly), Anderson also doesn't seem to be able to resist following up his punchlines with lengthy, tedious explanations, choosing either to have someone verbalize them--think of Adam Sandler's (interminable!) narrative/exposition in 2002's (interminable!) Punch Drunk Love--or choosing to have them acted out (interminably!) as he did in 1997's Boogie Nights, where every character's every social and professional misstep is followed by an (interminable!) dramatization of the complete fall-out.
At times, it's like PTA took a look at the aggressive "always show, never tell" maxim of someone like Natural Born Killers-era Oliver Stone and just straight reversed it.
And, while I'm on the subject of Anderson's annoying habits, I'll also go ahead and mention this one even though the point has been made implicitly by now: dude's most annoying habit is that he refuses to edit his movies.
The theatrical release of There Will Be Blood is over two and a half hours long. And it is a celebration of all of Paul Thomas Anderson's annoying habits: tension builds and is never satisfyingly released, there is endless (interminable!) visual and dramatic explanation of themes and ideas that have already been made abundantly clear and, unless you've got patience to rival the Buddha's, this movie will put ants in your pants.
Which is not to say that I don't recommend it. Much like Magnolia, Anderson's attempt to sabotage his own movie by rendering it unwatchable are themselves sabotaged by one of the most incredible performances ever set in celluloid.
Daniel Day-Lewis is, as always, just incredible to watch: the guy grabs you by the throat and literally has you hanging on his every gesture for the duration.
And, honestly, he makes what would otherwise be a pile of hot garbage eminently watchable. Whereas a guy with no acting chops like Adam Sandler just gives himself over to Anderson's psychotic and inexplicable drive to make dull, pandering non-movies about interesting people slowly doing uninteresting things, and cranks out a dull, unwatchable non-movie, Lewis does what Tom Cruise does in Magnolia and just tears ass in the opposite direction, dragging what would otherwise be a plodding, lugubrious train-wreck behind him, stealing every scene and turning garbage into gold.
So, final estimation: Day-Lewis is not to be missed. And, since he gets much more screen-time than Cruise did in Magnolia, you won't have to fast-forward through huge chunks of the movie to see what you came to see.
And that, obviously, is a win. Definitely watch this movie.
