There Will Be Reviews of There Will Be Blood!

By Katey Rich

I've been reading a lot of Oscar blogs in the last few days, namely the ones run by the Los Angeles Times and Variety, and what's interested me most is how much speculation is going on even when several potential contenders haven't even been seen yet. One of the biggest question marks was There Will Be Blood, which was under review embargo until Monday after sneak screenings in Austin and in Los Angeles.

Variety's Todd McCarthy, somehow, has gotten around the embargo and has posted the first full review of the film. It's absurdly long for a Variety review-- 1200 words!-- and gets into a lot of details about the story, but never seems to come up with a "Yay! I loved it!" or "Boo! I hated it!" line. The closest is the expected praise for Daniel Day-Lewis, who stars as diabolical Texas oil man Daniel Plainview: "Day-Lewis, who, as always, seems so completely absorbed in his role that it's difficult to imagine him emerging between takes as just an actor playing a part. Daniel is a man who will stop at nothing to achieve the unnatural state of becoming an island onto himself, and Day-Lewis makes him his own." Paul Dano, who plays Eli Sunday, a preacher who squares off against Plainview, gets praise as well: "Dano ranges from politely deferential to frothingly enraptured in a powerful performance as the young man of God," McCarthy writes.

The top of the review highlights the difficult of marketing the film, and some of McCarthy's key phrases definitely make that clear: "Foregrounded by an electronic sound that soars to an almost unbearable pitch, the first 15 minutes unfold with essentially no dialogue"..."The unashamedly declarative talk [...]brings to mind a bracing fusion of Eugene O'Neill and John Dos Passos"... "The sweeping, surging, constantly surprising score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood [...] could be described as avant-garde symphonic." Pjew. Those are definitely not phrases you're going to slap up on a one-sheet.

UPDATE: Kristopher Tatley, who writes Variety's "Red Carpet District'" blog, has posted his review as well. He hits on a lot of the same points as McCarthy, which each of them seeming to conclude that the film offers a lot to think about, a phenomenal performance from Day-Lewis, but maybe not quite the crowd-pleasing sweep some people were looking for. Tatley, who also keeps a running tally of Oscar contenders, has removed There WIll Be Blood from contention entirely.

I'm anxious to read some more reviews to see if this turns into a consensus, that There WIll Be Blood is interesting but inaccesible. If that's the case I can't possibly imagine it'll hit with Academy voters, or audiences at large, and may wind up like P.T. Anderson's Magnolia, appreciated but never properly rewarded.

UPDATE UPDATE: Anne Thompson has chimed in as well, and she's calling McCarthy's review a rave. Not my choice of words, but Thompson loved it too.