There Will Be Blood (2007)

Premise: Following a tip, oilman Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier) head to the Sunday ranch and quickly discover that there is oil to be had. Daniel buys up as much as of the land as he can and sets to drilling, but he meets opposition from Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) , the town's fiery preacher from the Church of the Third Revelation.

If they gave out director's awards for balls alone, screenwriter and director Paul Thomas Anderson would win this one in a walk. He isn't afraid of anything. He rarely captures his protagonist in the centre of the screen; he trusts that you'll find the action all on your own. Hell, he'll hide the action behind trees and houses and expect you to wait for it. He put minute upon minute together with only ambient noise to back it up. He lets things go without saying. He'll put together one of the grandest American epics of greed and corruption ever committed to celluloid (from Upton Sinclair's novel, Oil!), and then he'll end it ambiguously. And you know what? I don't think he even cares what you think about that. He'll just keep on drinking your milk shake.

So long as this is what we get from Day-Lewis, there's no reason to begrudge him the self-imposed exile, the lengthy, secretive prep process, or the delay between films. So long as there is a sociopath that he can tear into ferociously, imbue him with the kind of slippery evil that keeps you up at night, and still make him seem like a cross between the hallmark of an American family man and the most dangerous creature you are ever like to meet, there is no reason to complain. And - love him for this - he does it all without being in the least bit showy. There's certainly a fussiness about how he gets there, but you can tell the difference between the actor or the character going over the top. With Day-Lewis behind the wheel, you'll never see it from the actor.

Dano may have had less time to prepare, but he has worked with Day-Lewis before. Even so, he must be a prodigious young talent not to get eaten alive by Day-Lewis in some of those scenes. He rightly plays it very close to the chest, leaving you to wonder to what extent Eli holds himself responsible for what follows after the sale and to what extent he wishes he were responsible. It was a deft casting moment for Anderson to call Dano back after his small role as Paul Sunday.

I am going to tell you that Anderson's writing and directing and that Robert Elswit cinematography are brilliant and beyond reproach, so we can move on to the single most important non-actorly element of this impeccably made picture: Jonny Greenwood's score. It isn't one score but twenty different interlocking musical moments that come together with the utmost sensitivity. Every time you think you got Greenwood's game beat (I see, you say, heavy on the trumpets), he'll throw you for a loop (no, violins! piano!). Then, just when you think you are about settled, boom! Diegetic music fading away in the background. Non-original, non-diegetic music. A little Brahms for ya.

Actually, Greenwood's game is pretty much Day-Lewis's game, which is the sum total of Anderson's game. He's got a lot to say about greed, vengeance, and blood (it will be spilt if you'll only wait for it). Pay attention. A+