Chris Reviews Lincoln

If you are a frequent reader of my reviews you should know by now that I am a sucker for Historical Dramas. History is something that I am passionate about and something that I spend as much time reading about as I do watching movies. So a film about Abraham Lincoln starring Daniel Day Lewis who happens to be my favorite actor looks like something that should be my favorite movie of the year. Did it live up to my expectations or fall flat on its face? Read below if you want to know the answer.

The Good-

As with every Spielberg film it is well shot and has high production values. The acting is good to great and their is significant emotional weight to almost every scene in this film. Daniel Day Lewis will get an Oscar Nomination for his role and could possibly be the frontrunner for the award which if he won would be his third. He has put forth the definitive performance of Lincoln, which I doubt will be matched anytime soon if ever. Also John Williams has put together another solid score that complements the film well.

The Bad-

This is a much smaller scale film than I was expecting. I was expecting an epic tale of the Civil War and Lincoln's leadership and instead what I got was a much more personal film that featured a lot of exposition. I am still trying to decide if this was a case of my expectations preventing me from appreciating a good film or if its as truly flawed as I think it is. The first act of the film with the exception of the very brutal and interesting opening battle scene is very dull. It picks up pace as the film goes along but overall this is a fairly unexciting, dry and pretentious film that seems more suited for the stage than on film. The excessive exposition reminded me of another Civil War film that was equally dull in "Gods and Generals" which I think may be a fair comparison to Lincoln. There is a moment in the film when Lincoln begins to tell a story and a man flips out asking if he is going to tell another story and that he cant hear another one, and that is how I was beginning to feel by the end of this film. There is just too many instances of people giving monologues in dark rooms for my taste. Spielberg has been experimenting in his last couple of film,War Horse was a very epic film that seemed too over the top and childish, Lincoln on the hand is much too small scale and subdued for the subject matter and lacks the excitement of his better films.  

Summary-

For all of my complaints about this film I still found it mildly entertaining. As I said Daniel Day Lewis gives a good performances that makes watching the film worth while. Overall though this is a very dull historical drama that is one of the weaker films in Spielberg's career.   

MY RATING-

A generous 3.5 out of 5     

Chris "Da Franchize" Hart