ongoing

  I've been known relish a dark tale, and that this "There Will Be Blood" is. I had to see it. Saw it early, before all the Oscar hoo-ha. Came home from the theater. Thought it should go up on the website. But there was this interesting question my wife asked, after I started explaining what I felt. She asked, "Why would you recommend it, then?" Good question, because most of what I said involved words like "slow pacing" and "greedy psychopath," and never once did I say, "What a joy to see that gem!" Paul Thomas Anderson's movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis as said psychopath (a turn of the century oilman) has been hailed as a masterpiece in many places, and maybe it would be if there was some catharsis or a character to identify with. Yes, Day-Lewis is very,  very good. But it's a puzzling movie about one mustachioed man - Daniel Plainview - and his obsession with striking it rich, while quashing all competitors. Problem there, is - well, there's no motivation. The only time you see Plainview enjoying his wealth is when he's sitting in the midst of a mansion (complete with bowling alley) he's having constructed. It's not pretty, what happens. Just before that, he has a major confrontation with his maybe-son - deafened in an oil derrick explosion as a boy - who has the audacity to want to start his own company in another country. "There Will Be Blood," based on muckraker Upton Sinclair's "OIL!," is certainly an actor's dream for Day-Lewis, who channels the Irish ganglord he played in "Gangs of New York." He is, at his core, a nihilist and an avaricious crook. (He also has a formal, stilted way of speaking that I found off-putting.) Following Plainview's path, I, at times, I felt like I was back in "No Country For Old Men" watching that movie's emotion-less psycho killer. So, if the movie was not quite a delight, it's interesting to puzzle over. Also of note: Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack - lots of piercing, buzzing drones - along with string sections - that create a post-modern aura of dread, not at all wedded to the time frame. So, there's your qualified tip. A strange movie about a strange man in a distant time ... except, of course, we know greed never dies.
It's at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, at noon, 3:15, 6:30 and 9:50, AMC Loews Boston Common 19 at 10:05 am, 1:25, 4:50, 8:10, and 1:25, the Regal Fenway 13 at 12:40, 4:20, 7:50 and 11:20 and Loews Harvard Square 5 at 11:10am, 2:40, 6:00, and 9:35. Tickets should run around $9.75. Check website below for more particulars. Want another, more positive view from a smart source. Click the "read more" button.

www.boston.mrmovietimes.com

Chip Rives, a friend who runs the Boston Music Awards, offered JSink another take: "I read your review after seeing it this week. I think you missed the whole family connection - the guy at times seemed very human and complex. Holdingthe baby at the beginning, raising him and being very loving with him at times. And juxtaposing that with using him to be a 'family' man and swindling people out of land. And the craving for family - his brother who really wasn't his brother, but he was willing to make him a partner just because he wanted family. I thought that whole juxtaposition made his character much more interesting than 'No Country for Old Men.' I thought that the pace fit the story and that the character was more deep than you presented. The pace was that of drilling for oil - slow, laborious, hard freaking work. That opening scene summed up who that guy was - he falls down a mindshaft, breaks his leg, and drags himself to collect. But two scenes later he's rescuing a child from god knows what."