A masterpiece, it is not. It's certainly ambitious, tries to be original, to stay true to its own voice and not cower in the face of what's safe, easy, and popular. And for the first half, it tells a damn good story. Sadly, where There Will Be Blood goes wrong is at the halfway point, when a crucial plot development occurs that pretty much derails the film's disciplined focus and, ultimately, severely dilutes its impact.Which is a shame, since this really could've been a powerful movie. It sets itself up to be a dark and moving father-son story, and there are scenes after the halfway point that would've resonated so much more, had they not been overshadowed by the aforementioned disappointing turn the movie decides to take.
Perhaps not coincidentally, it's this turn at which director Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Uptor Sinclair's Oil! ends, and his own take on the material begins.
This is not to say the movie simply stinks during the second half. In fact, there are some pretty entertaining parts, such as the infamous "I drink your milkshake!" scene (ironic how that phrase has become a catchphrase representing the film, even though it really sums up absolutely nothing relevant to the story at all). But those entertaining moments come at a cost—namely, betraying the story's original direction in favor of pointless scenery-chewing.
Daniel Day-Lewis is perhaps one of the few actors who can make scenery-chewing seem like the reason why we have actors. Luckily, Day-Lewis also knows how to imbue his characters with subtler stuff than that, and it's in moments where we see quieter, more complex statements of his suppressed rage and emotional pain that make his performance truly noteworthy.
In the end, the film is pretty odd, a definite mixed bag of memorable scenes, of staggering missed potential, of moments that are somewhere between amusing and disturbing. In some ways, There Will Be Blood feels both undercooked and overcooked at the same time. There are enough arresting parts to prevent the film from simply being dismissed as completely misguided, but the level of greatness it tries to achieve easily escapes the movie's grasp by quite some distance.
Still, this shows that some people in Hollywood are at least trying to make good dramas that take genuine risks, and that's definitely an encouraging sign for American creativity.
