First, There Will Be Blood is worth seeing simply for the performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. I’ve seen just one other of the five Oscar-nominated best actors, George Clooney in Michael Clayton, and Day-Lewis is in a whole other league from Clooney, good as Clooney was. Simply extraordinary.
I’ve seen four of the five best picture nominees now, all but Atonement. It’s hard to say, but I think I’d put There Will Be Blood last of the four. Michael Clayton was more intriguing, Juno more entertaining, No Country for Old Men more challenging.
There Will Be Blood is an episodic biography of a fictional oil man, much the way The Aviator was the biography of the real Howard Hughes, or Citizen Kane was of a mostly fictional tycoon. There’s a little bit about a silver strike, small oil finds, a large oil strike, a pipeline — beads on a string, some larger and more complete than others, but nothing in between. Why did this happen? Why did he get that way? Why did he do that? We get a glimpse, but no real answers.
I find this troublesome. The Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness was entertaining, but I didn’t feel I knew any more about the lead character at the end than I did going in. Good Night, and Good Luck was another good film that left more questions unasked than answered. Ken mentioned to me Michael Clayton — how did the woman attorney get to murder? That’s a big step. I’m glad that many films are trying to be more than they are, and I certainly respect the constraints of telling a story visually in 120 minutes, give or take (158 for There Will Be Blood). I just don’t think the current crop quite gets it done.
Critics have written that this year’s best picture nominees are a particularly bleak look at the world and indeed they are. They say it’s the temper of the times. A film historian might point out however, that the most successful type of films during the depths of the depression were comedies and musicals. The audience sought relief from everyday life. Perhaps now we have too many other ways to find lighter fare with television and the internets, I don’t know. But the unexpected success of Juno may be one indication. I’d watch all four of these films again for one reason or another, but Juno is the one I’d look forward to seeing.
Atonement this weekend.
Reminds me of Preston Sturges’ delightful Sullivan’s Travels. Sullivan wants to make a movie about what is really going on this country. He says he is going to call his great movie “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?”
Sullivan’s moment of clarity results in the realization that moviegoers don’t want to see movies about reality. They want comedies and musicals.
Me? I’m looking forward to Sweeney Todd, a musical that is funny, if you’re twisted right.