Rating of
3.5/4
"I'm finished."
Arbogast1960 - wrote on 03/28/08
It's hard to know what to do with this movie. On the one hand, it is visually extraordinary. The avant garde score is superb, adding to the tense, punishing atmosphere. Daniel Day-Lewis is wonderful, demonstrating how to properly chew the scenery without overacting (though some might find his impeccable channeling of John Huston to be a bit distracting). And the story is exquisitely dark, a moral showdown between business and religion in which no one wins and the parties are defined less by their differences than their different means of achieving the same avaricious goals. On the other hand, there is Paul Dano, who gives a performance which is not entirely satisfying (that is not to say he's bad, just that he's slightly more simpering than need be). I also get the nagging feeling that the film is somehow less than the sum of its parts--it is dark, it is brooding, it is beautiful, but it's not as deep or complex a film as you've likely heard (or as it wishes to be).
And then there is the much-discussed ending, which is as entertaining as any you're likely to see anytime soon, but is so garish, so screwball, so out of step with the rest of the film (in its tone and rendering, not in the broad outline of its events), one finds oneself at a loss to explain how Anderson made such a misstep. Imagine a Three Stooges-style burlesque tacked on to No Country for Old Men and you have some sense of the incongruity. That said, it is a fine film and highly recommended.
