There Will Be Blood *****

"There Will Be Blood" is at once an account of U.S. oil exploration at the turn of the century, a masterful visual construction, a meditation on family, a harrowing character study, and a damning portrait of the role of business and religion in American life. The virtually wordless opening sequences show us the salient episodes in the ascent of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) from solo miner to oil man. These sequences, with utterly convincing period detail and careful composition, and little if any music, set the tone for the rest of the movie. What we have here is a remarkable visual feast, a rough and lived-in production design, and extraordinary performances of the script from screenplay writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson.

Anderson, perhaps best known as the director and writer of "Punch Drunk Love" (2002), for which Adam Sandler received his only Golden globe nomination, and "Boogie Nights" (1997), here loosely adapts the 1927 novel "Oil!" by Upton Sinclair. His script is spare on words, resonant of the American West and the plain-spoken self-made man, but also eloquent on those occasions and in the ways a businessman or a faith healer would employ. His direction is sure-footed, and while one suspects that Daniel Day-Lewis requires little in the way of coaching, the performances, pacing, and vision of the movie are the work of a master.

Cinematographer Robert Elswit ("Michael Clayton," "American Dreamz," " Syriana," "Good Night, and Good Luck") gives us another superb collection of shots and compositions that communicate the story. But it is the performances, primarily of Day-Lewis as the oil man, and secondarily of Paul Dano as twins Paul and Eli Sunday, who mirror the businessman/religious charlatan split of American life, that make this movie such an entertaining experience, despite its two-and-a-half-hour-plus run time. Dano, so convincing in "Little Miss Sunshine," brings intensity and clarity to the role of Eli Sunday. But it is Day-Lewis, probably now best-remembered for his role as Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting in "Gangs of New York," who mesmerizes. His portrayal of amoral, atheist, asexual Daniel Plainview keeps you riveted throughout the film.

"There Will Be Blood" is one of the rarest of movies, one that combines great direction, writing, cinematography, production design, and acting. It is not to be missed.

Rated R. 167 minutes. Produced and distributed by Miramax Films.