There Will Be Blood

[El Gordo]

This movie was a strange and unsettling experience, and it isn’t for everyone. I'm still trying to work out if it was for me. I’m usually pretty instinctive about these things.

It's not a film to ‘enjoy’ in the usual sense. An arthouse movie -- claustrophobic, dark and extremely intense -- which makes it all the more surprising that it's received such popular acclaim. Not a word is spoken in the first 20 minutes, but it doesn't seem to matter.

There’s no neat story to pursue; instead it’s a slow-motion attritional battle between a collection of huge tentacles – oil, religion, greed, family, capitalism, disability…. You’re never sure who are the good guys. Perhaps there aren’t any. Perhaps that's the message.

I was struck by the similarity in tone with Citizen Kane. A pig-headed guy, beautifully played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who knows what he wants -- wealth and power. But the more of it he gets, the more he realises that wealth isn't the same as happiness. It's an angry film, and watching it made me angry too. It seemed to be able to reach inside and poke a few bruises I never knew existed.

Part of me wants to dismiss it as overlong, pretentious nonsense, but it can't be denied that I keep thinking about it, more than 24 hours after I saw it. It reminded me that the US is no less fascinating a country than Tibet or Japan. Perhaps that’s what it’s about – the germination of modern America. Like many of the bleaker, raw Westerns, you feel astonished to be reminded of what 19th century pioneer spirit must have been like.

You have to see it yourself. Prepare to go places you weren’t expecting to go.

But be warned: there were only about 20 people in the cinema, and 5 left before the end. You may well be one of those 25%.