There Wasn't All That Much Blood

At the end of the movie, Daniel Plainview says "I'm finished". And I found myself very glad he was. There was only two likeable things in the movie, that his son finds a better life for himself and that Daniel Day-Lewis's performance was powerful enough to make me majorly dislike him. Hate is a little too strong of a word for a fictional character. What I didn't enjoy was sitting back up and feeling nauseas after it was over. Just like when biff and I went to see Babel.

There Will Be Blood.

Paul Thomas Anderson made this movie. And while I have loved Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love... this one just did nothing for me. Aside from being impressed with Daniel Day-Lewis's performance.

So... after I turned the movie off, I thought about it. I tried to place why my stomach was sickly and why I wanted it out of my apartment as quickly as could be. I literally got up, put it back in it's envelope and drove it to the post office. Usually, I can take something from a movie... a lesson, a thought, a something. I'm coming up with little to nothing right now.

It's a story of greed, of the money hungry. It's a story that falls flat to me. A story of more than one man's destruction. But several. Yet, I can't connect to any part of it on a personal level. Not one part. Money hungry... yeah... it happens but this type of money hungry didn't remind me of anyone I know or make me think that there was any real depth there to be found. (Maybe that's what I need to take from this... some people are just shallow... simple as that... but I don't think that's it either. Shallow doesn't necessarily mean misery and insanity, which is all over the place in this tale.) His son had depth. The story of his son had depth. But, still... I felt no connection to it.

I'm disappointed in the film. This thing was all over the place with awards and top ten lists. All sorts of stuff. And this will just have to be one of those blogs that has no specific point. However, if my little mini-review here saves you about two hours of your life, that's enough for me.