Reviews

There Will Be Blood is the story of one man, Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector, and a successful one at that. His success is achieved at a cost - initially to himself in the hours/days/weeks of solitary searching, and the shattered leg that we see in the lengthy introductory sequence, but also and primarily to others.

There are other well-drawn characters in the film, notably Eli Sunday the local pastor and nemesis of Plainview, but all, even Plainview's adopted son, are meted various degrees of brutal treatment - physical and/or emotional - and the story sees all crushed beneath this juggernaut of near-psychotic ruthlessness. There is indeed blood, and there is absolutely no redemption.

TWTB is a raw cinematic experience, and made great by a number of factors. Daniel Day Lewis's performance as Plainview is simply immense; he is a worthy Oscar winner for such a frighteningly unsympathetic role. I find it hard to recall another movie so in thrall to a central character so human yet so irredeemable (in the truest amoral sense). Paul Thomas Anderson's direction is magnificent to my untrained eyes, matching the immense landscape and endeavour on show with the immense personal ambition visible in Plainview's near-mystical visage. His pacing of the film is masterful, allowing the character of Plainview to grow yet darken steadily through shades of deepening gloom to final blackness. The cinematography is excellent and Jonny Greenwood's percussive score provides a truly distinctive aural backbone.

All this is not without flaws. The parenthetical story element based around Plainview's half-brother Henry could possibly have been eliminated altogether to shorten the film without losing any real substance in the narrative (we learn a little of Daniel's family history but little more). The depiction of women - who are virtually absent in fact other than the muted and cipher-esquire character of young Mary Sunday - may leave some female viewers rather cold, though perhaps this reflects the rural/industrial environment of the era fairly enough. The film owes some obvious debts to Citizen Kane and Chinatown, amongst other works, but they're hardly poor influences to select!

In a word though, TWTB is marvellous. This is the kind of film that comes along perhaps only once a decade and will surely be treasured as an immense piece of cinema for many years to come.

One of my favourite films of 2007, this made a great impact on me when I saw it in the cinema, and watching clips screened on TV since only reminds me of the many highlights that it features. The storyline of the film is well-structured - based around a young girl's confused and spiteful reactions to her older sister's romance. Joe Wright as director subtly shifts styles, leading from the clipped and mannered 1930s through the upheavals of WW2, and on to the dramatic revelations in the sterile TV studio at the conclusion (delivered by the excellent Vanessa Redgrave). This is one of those films that makes terrific use of the wide screen, nowhere more so than in the excellent recreation of the soldiers' views of the long wait for evacuation from Dunkirk. Performances from the whole cast are very good, with James McAvoy in particular delivering what will hopefully be just one of many memorable roles to come. Highly recommended!

Words almost fail me, but the message I must give is important for any Woody Allen completist planning to spend any time or money on watching this clumsy, tedious, and simply irritating movie. PLEASE DON'T! And if you're not a Woody fan - WATCH SOMETHING ELSE!

I am a big Woody Allen fan; I was looking forward to this film being a worthy addition to his tremendous, if variable, portfolio. And I respect Woody for trying something new here, by crossing the Atlantic to make a film with a cast made up almost solely of English characters based in an around London. But the result is truly execrable! It pains me to give such a low mark to a film by such a great film-maker.

I'd say that the fact that this film has made many millions of dollars at the box-office must be based entirely on his reputation, but all of Woody's other recent films have done far less well - why?? This is one baffling aspect of this movie. But the most baffling aspect is just how/why did it turn out to be such a stinker?

Where does it all go wrong? Well, the central story is just about acceptable if you're happy to accept yet another very run-of-the-mill hokey story about a crime of passion that wouldn't have vexed the minds of thriller fans in any era. It's nothing special story-wise, but nothing too awful.

What murders this film stone-dead from the earliest scenes is the poor dialogue, and in particular the appalling series of lines painfully delivered by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Chris, the central character who (unfortunately for the viewer) appears in virtually every scene of the film. Now as the film wore on, I became increasingly concerned that JRM is simply not a good actor. I'd be very happy to be proved wrong, I've no problem with his other work, but his peculiar transatlantic accent and extraordinarily stilted manner combines with the humourless, charmless dialogue that he's given by Allen to kill every scene in its tracks.

More? There is no humour or levity whatsoever, at any point in the film. Despite this, a whole host of fine British comic actors make sadly wasted appearances, presumably drawn to the fake aura of Woody. The office scenes, at Chris's workplace, are risible. JRM's amorous clinches with Scarlett Johansson's American character (tellingly the most convincingly written part here) are frankly embarrassing, really quite bizarre in their inept staging and performance.

Woody received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay! How???

Enough already! Just don't be tempted! DON'T!

If you're a Woody fan yearning for new material, watch Julie Delpy's "2 Days in Paris" - infinitely better than anything the man himself can muster nowadays ...

Years on from his success in Billy Elliott, it's great to see Jamie Bell being given a vehicle to show that he has the genuine talent to carry a film. Hallam Foe is a fine British production; quirky, disturbing, funny, interesting, thought-provoking and consistently well-shot and soundtracked. At the same time, it's a little gimmicky, heavily-influenced (Trainspotting, Rear Window et al), and frankly far-fetched in its depiction of the unlikely love between Hallam and the object of his affection in Edinburgh (Sophie Myles). But where the disbelief needs suspending,Jamie Bell's performance saves the day, on the emotional side through bringing tremendous depth to his character, and on the physical side by making his rooftop athleticism completely believable. For all its faults, this is a admirable and brave piece of work, well worth-watching if you're after something dark and provocative that will also make you laugh (the badger suit?).