CastDaniel Day-Lewis
Paul Dano
Kevin J. O'Connor
Ciaran Hinds
Russell Harvard
Mary Elizabeth Barret
Kevin Breznahan
Brad Carr
Screenwriter
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
Paul Thomas Anderson
Running Time
158 minutes
When Daniel Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that there's a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads there with his son, H.W., to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the HOLY ROLLER church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday, Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value--love, hope, community, belief, ambition, and even the bond between father and son--is imperiled by corruption, deception, and the flow of oil. (Paramount Vantage)
I don't know how many decades have passed since the last oil prospecting western so it's surprising and refreshing to see one. Daniel Day-Lewis is mesmerising and the whole film centres around him as really the only main character with everyone else reduced to cameo sized appearances. The whole thing is absorbing but there's a strangeness about it and in particular the ending, which is kind of eccentric.
