Day-Lewis mesmerizes in ‘Blood’

Dark and mesmerizing from beginning to end, "There Will Be Blood" leaves a mark - a damn'd spot, if you will.

Based loosely on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel "Oil!" the movie tells the story of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a turn-of-the-century petroleum prospector in the Wild West. A chain-smoking Day-Lewis is big and bold in this haunted role and I'm unable to turn away. WOW!

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights," "Punch Drunk Love"), "There Will Be Blood" overflows with greed, cruelty and madness and though it's serious subject matter I'm not sure it warrants the R-rating.

Still, from the way it looks - big props to cinematographer Robert Elswit - to the way it sounds - Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood composed the terror-filled tunes - this movie has Oscar written all over it. In fact, it earned eight nominations, including best picture and best actor.

"There Will Be Blood" begins in 1898 with an ambitious Daniel Plainview looking to get out of silver mining. He doesn't much care for the human race and is a solitary figure driven by the possibility of great wealth.

In the vast expanse that is California, Plainview finds oil, but getting at it proves a dirty job. Starting from the very bottom, literally from within the bowels of the earth, he builds his "family-run" oil empire back in the day when they didn't have huge electronic drills to get at it. The oil is lifted up bucket-by-bucket using ropes and other rudimentary equipment.

It's how Plainview got his start and it's how many a man falls dead - clunk! -when hit on the head with some piece of falling heavy metal. Yet he remains mostly unaffected by the dangers his workers face and pushes forward with bigger and more aggressive operations.

Plainview is also very much focused on raising his young son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), who as an infant looks very out-of-place on an oilfield. There are no women around. The great affection he feels for his son is hard to pin down and almost unnatural - his soft spot, possibly.

In the course of business, Plainview gets a tip from one Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) about oil gurgling at the surface in his hometown of Little Boston, Calif.

Sunday subsequently sells him the family farm for dirt-cheap and gets the hell out of Dodge. It's easy to see why once you meet his identical twin, Eli, also played by Paul Dano, who starred in 2006's "Little Miss Sunshine."

A man of the cloth, Eli seems too young and creepy to be leading a church, but he has quite the following in his small-town. Led by the spirit, Eli immediately sets his sights on converting Plainview, who is less-than-interested in organized religion, especially of the Pentecostal kind.

That someone can't afford a loaf of bread is more of an abomination to Plainview.

The two men clash again and again in "There Will Be Blood," leading to a final scene in which one gets the feeling it was one visit too many.

Eli eventually gets Daniel into his church, but uses the opportunity to humiliate the powerful oilman. Dano and Day-Lewis explode in the simple sanctuary: you'll know the scene.

"Get out of here ghost," shouts pastor Eli in hysterics and it's almost certain that Plainview's about to crack his head open.

Teetering on the edge of sanity, Plainview gets wealthier and wealthier and it comes at a great cost. He is not happy and life eats away at his soul. He trusts no one. Perhaps he is beyond redemption. Perhaps Plainview does not want to be saved.

There will be long discussions and heartache in "There Will Be Blood" and a violent ending. Heavy shadows reveal dark secrets as this movie gets under your skin.

Bravo, bravo, bravo to Day-Lewis and crew for an epic movie worth remembering.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or .