There Will Be Movies that Go Nowhere

I don't really keep up with the movie scene. I despise the Grammys, can't remember the last time I went to the theater, and rarely watch television. I am, however, a relatively new convert to Netflix (which has continued to impress me both in customer service and value) - and, combined with the screening magic of ClearPlay, I have been slowly catching up on what I've missed.

One of my most recent rentals was There Will Be Blood, based on a strong recommendation from my brother (and just about everyone else, it seems). After watching it with some friends, however, the reviews were not positive across the board. My outlook was probably the most forgiving (spoiler warning):

For the majority of the flick, I thought everything was going really well. The long and silent opening was well done, as well as the eerie music combined with shots of desert. I also really enjoyed the development of the oil man and the preacher. Throw in an old-school oil rig with a propensity for mishaps, and I was nearly on the edge of my seat.

Then, things started to fall apart. Out of nowhere, the oil man decides to go high-school-bully on the crazy preacher when asked for money. Perhaps I was supposed to link that to the oil man being upset over his son's accident, but it took some conscious stretching for me to get there. I mean, the oil man was intentionally amenable to all of the preacher's previous requests (at least in word).

From there, things continued to follow paths I never would have expected. The oil man becomes a drunken, competitive lunatic. The son somehow turns into a debilitated pyro upon losing his hearing (until he shows up later to be the model of patience when he faces his father). And the preacher, who seemed at first to clearly be the crazy one, ends up being all talk.

As I mentioned before, I thought the bullying scene was out of place, but the first time I realized I wasn't feeling the emotion I was supposed to was when the oil man forced himself to follow the preacher's commands to pray and admit he abandoned his son. It was as if I had missed entire segments of character development leading up to that scene. This pattern continued until, at the very end of the film, when the roles were reversed and the preacher was denying everything holy for money, I couldn't have cared less. (I was, however, able to chuckle at the bowling pin violence and final "I'm finished" line, but something tells me this isn't the feeling with which the authors wanted to leave the audience.)

Of course, it's possible the ClearPlay editing played a part. It has various filter settings for different kinds of potentially offensive content (e.g., nudity, violence, language, blasphemy, drug use, etc.) and I unintentionally had all of them maxed out. From what I can gather, though, this didn't cause the removal of enough original content to entirely botch the last quarter of the film. I mean, we're not talking A Clockwork Orange or anything here.

Star This to Save in Your Profile