THERE WILL BE BLOOD/THANK GOODNESS

Funny how movies build momentum, appearing dimly on the horizon without great fanfare, then becoming juggernauts. Here the secret ingredient is Daniel Day Lewis.

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Yes, the director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has pedigree too.

He’s been around 20 years now, ever since that audacious porn industry trick called The Dirk Diggler Story.

In that time he has directed some beauties – Boogie Nights and Magnolia, stand out - with hardly a weak scene in them, and many scenes that were unforgettable.

Frogs falling from the sky anyone?

But he also coughed up some questionable fare as well, including Coffee and Cigarettes plus mad cap Punch-Drunk Love, so no one could count on his name to lure in the crowds.

Nor does the story sound like automatic box office: faith healers and greed in America’s early oil business.

Then came the man, Londoner Daniel D (pictured above), dragging himself away from the charms of his quiet Irish retreat and belting out a performance which has blown away audiences at preview screenings until that juggernaut is bearing down on cinema audiences, transfixing them like proverbial rabbits, unable to do anything but succumb.

There Will Be Blood, no doubt about that.

But there will also be one more fine movie in cinemas, which is as welcome as a drill striking oil in the dry dirt after too long a barren patch.

There Will Be Blood opens in London on February 8th and nationwide on February 15th, 2008.

Filed January 29th, 2008.