The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a character based loosely on an amalgamation of several real life people, in turn based loosely on the main character of Oil!, the book which inspired the film. Without getting into a lengthy plot analysis, I'll tell you simply this is a story about success, and what that costs a man, his family, and the people he walks over in order to succeed.

I was thinking while watching it, that this movie really should've been more boring based on its subject matter. I mean, it's basically a movie about a guy doing business. Granted, it's more of a con operation, and watching Plainview lie in more and more creative ways is certainly entertaining, but when a movie's most action packed scene is an inanimate object burning, usually that's a sign of a movie I'm going to fall asleep in.

Yet, somehow director Paul Anderson (not to be confused with hack Paul W.S. Anderson, the man who messes up movies a film school drop out couldn't mess up) manages to infuse moments of silence with dread, or excitement, or sadness. He is able to humanize a character that in the hands of a lesser director or actor, would seem to be completely inhuman. Plainview standing triumphant before a burning oil derrick is one of the film's most gripping, vibrant images.

Anderson doesn't deserve all the credit however, in spite of his beautiful cinematography, well-crafted story, it would be a shell of what it is without Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm not that familiar with his body of work, but after watching how he immerses himself in the role of Daniel Plainview, I have a feeling that any such familiarity wouldn't have prepared me at all for the intensity he brings to the role of Daniel Plainview. Much like Gary Oldman, he strikes me as the kind of actor who never plays the same character unlike, say Al Pacino who's been the same angry guy for twenty plus years. He is notorious for the amount of research and preparation he goes through for a role, even isolating himself in a hotel for a month to prepare for a film where he plays a man who lives in relative isolation with his daughter (The Ballad of Jack and Rose).

The closest thing this movie has to an antagonist is Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano. Whereas Plainview is an outspoken, aggressive man, Eli is quiet but passive aggressive. Nevertheless, he is calculating and intelligent, and Paul Dano deserves credit for holding his own against Day-Lewis. A lesser actor would've stumbled in the scenes of Eli's Evangelical sermons, but Dano immerses himself in these moments and keeps them believable.

One thing people might note, for better or worse is the film's structure. I was a little unnerved about it at first but I realized that it's structured like a book: There is a prologue, the story proper, and an epilogue. You shouldn't confuse an epilogue for a story's ending, nor should you confuse a prologue for its beginning. They're more like appetizers and desert.

This really is a movie worth seeing, great acting, great storytelling, definitely a film worthy of its buzz.