Yes, There Was Blood.

Oh, hi there, Daniel Day! Taking a load off then, after a hard days' work? You deserve it, what with putting in yet another amazing performance. How does it feel to produce consistent performance, after consistent performance? I love you, will you be my friend?

Best film of 2007. Period. Game over. Let the battle for second place begin.

I ended a lovely weekend with a truly wonderful film. I won't do it justice with my words, but suffice to say I'm sad that I saw this at the start of 2008, as it's going to be a long time before another movie this good comes along - if it happens at all, this year. Paul Thomas Anderson gives us a film that should be a crowning career achievement, but remarkably is only his fifth full-length feature. I own both the deeply beautiful yet (in my mind) deeply flawed 'Magnolia' and the wonderful 'Punch Drunk Love' and I'll own this, the day it's released.

Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano ('Little Miss Sunshine') play three completely compelling characters and I looked forward to every scene I had the pleasure of watching.

The visual look has long been important for this director and he doesn't disappoint here. The stark landscapes and the way the characters are presented, along with the use of clever camera placement and quality of shots, leave you breathless and I won't apologize for what I don't consider hyperbole. It's just such a beautiful-looking movie. It seems like no detail was too small, when you see the final product.

If 'the other truly great movie of 2007 - 'No Country for Old Men' - showed how a lack of music can work to the advantage of the material, then 'There Will be Blood' showed the exact opposite. While writing this, I looked up the soundtrack information and was reminded that it was alien-faced Jonny Greenwood that was behind this score and my God, is it a work of genius. This be goin' on my iPod, folks. The tension-inducing scenes combined with the tension-inducing strings of his arrangements, were enough to keep my breath held throughout most of the movie and had a curious effect on the audience, of searching desperately for a way to release the anxiety surrounding what they were watching. Even though I was in a theatre with only about 42 seats, the room erupted in nervous laughter, when finally given a chance to let it out at a scene that might not necessarily have been as funny, when we first sat down.

I'm done. See this movie.