I feel I'm one of the only people who really didn't like this movie
. I've loved PTA's films in the past, but I think this one left too much outside the box to make me leave the theater caring about the characters or the film itself.
**May Contain Spoilers**
Don't get me wrong, as he always is, Daniel Day Lewis brings out the "best" of any character he portrays. He was the only thing I enjoyed about Gangs of New York. But, unlike his other movies, I believe we're left caring too little about the characters or the story. Plainview is just a wholly awful human being. He states his desire to be alone early on and doesn't love or care about anything else if it doesn't serve his own benefit. For me, the revelations at the end about Eli and Plainview were all too obvious throughout the whole movie, and I thought the ending was nothing surprising by a bitter, hateful man and the boy who, in a sense, was just like him. Basically using everyone around them to their advantage, and with absolutely no remorse.
I feel like the middle of the movie was entirely too slow, and the juxtaposition of Jonny Greenwood's music for the film was too awkward in the film. PTA's films have done this in the past, but I thought they were done very well--especially Magnolia. I thought there were so many moments in this film that gave a heightened sense of fear or just overall tension, but neither the characters nor the scene were reflective of this.
And, unfortunately, I think Paul Dano was incredibly mis-cast. As his "twin" he was more convincing, but to attempt and convince an audience that this self-centered, arrogant boy had the ability to convince others that he was a leader? I just didn't buy it. If you consider those who've done that in the past, from Charles Manson to Hitler to David Miscavage and that guy on infomercials late at night giving away healing Manna...there's something charismatic about them, something that gives other people the desire to believe them, to want to believe them. There was nothing from Paul Dano as that character to make me believe that he was this person. His own family saw right through him, and were afraid of his insanity. Afraid of this boy, who had no real power to convince anyone of anything---yet he had this church full of believers.
I'm just trying to get a sense of what people actually saw in the movie versus what you can dig and find as meaning after the fact. I understand that a lot of PTA's movies inspire a search for meaning, an understanding not fully ascertained by watching the film outright. But I thought that this one asked too much of us, for meaning that just wasn't there for me.
I thought the idea of the movie was excellent, I thought the characters would've been amazing had we had a sense of caring about them (and not caring in the sense of love, you can care about characters that inspire hatred--or inspire something). But for me, the story just wasn't there.
There's more, but I wont continue ranting...just maybe seeing if someone out there shared my opinion : )
Don't kill me please, just my honest opinion.
