Viewed in
2012
Formats
Movie theater.
Premise
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as President Abraham Lincoln trying to end the Civil War and pass the 13th Amendment in Steven Spielberg's biography.
Loved
Powerful acting, cinematography.
Liked
Pretty much everything else.
Thoughts
It will probably win all the awards.
As expected, the MVP was Day-Lewis. This time he dominated the screen not through intensity, but with intelligence. He owned Lincoln with a quiet, sneakily jovial performance. Meanwhile, in the best supporting department, Tommy Lee Jones almost stole the show with a juicy performance unrivaled since The Fugitive (poor David Stathairn will be overlooked). Sally Fields should also get a supporting actress nod, playing Mary Todd not just as a crazy woman, but a mother full of grief and complexity. The rest of the cast was ridiculously deep, including the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, John Hawkes, Jackie Earl Haley and whoever else's name starts with J.
Kudos to Spielberg and Tony Kushner's script for crafting a story that made passing legislation easy to follow and intense. I'm not a history buff, so it was interesting to tag along the roller coaster ride of politics back then. One really fascinating aspect was it didn't shy away from Lincoln's administration buying votes to help the cause. The entire story was so compelling that any attempt to sugarcoat or slam the characters behaviors would've done the film a diservice.
What took me be surprise was the absolutely gorgeous cinematography. Every craggy face and history-rich room was lit and shot with such thoughtful detail, giving the whole movie a painter-like quality. I will be shocked if DP Janusz Kaminski doesn't get nominated.
My only nitpicks: editing and minor characters. At times I got a little lost trying to keep track of all the representatives, each with their own motives and needs. For the story's sake, I would've omitted or combined a couple of these characters, at the expense of history accuracy. This is a movie, not a play-by-play account.
I also found the editing to be a little off. It's hard to put into words, but the timing of cuts felt out of rhythm. Also I wished they used more close ups for key moments. It was as if Spielberg was a little too conscious about keeping a distance in the story-telling.
Lincoln was a classic Oscar film. It had great moments of steller performances, emotional scenes, strong writing and directing that enthralled the audience. Spielberg was able to tell an essential, painful, messy chapter of America in a compelling way, emotionally and intellectually. Throughout the film, I was either in tears or on the verge of shouting "America, F*** Yeah!"
