America's most famous and beloved director makes a film about America's most famous and beloved President which is destined to win awards and be the bane of American schoolchildren forever more. While the film is well written, beautifully shot and boasts a tremendous performance by Method man Daniel Day-Lewis, it is also overly worthy, talky and - it feels almost sacriligious to utter it - rather dull.
This isn't so much a biopic as a snapshot of a historic moment - the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865 that abolished slavery in the United States. We get no details of his early life (or his vampire hunting), the Lincoln we meet here is at the end of his life, grey, tired, stooped yet still full of intelligence and wit. The Civil War has been waging for four long years and, with a possible peace treaty with the South on the cards, many think the President is mad to want to force through an Amendment to the Constitution, especially Lincoln's right hand man William Seward (David Straitharn). The President is adamant however, so Seward hires three savvy colleagues (including James Spader and Tim Blake Nelson) to cajole and bribe Democrats to side with the Republicans. Can the President also convince fierce Abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones playing the same part he always does) to soften his stance so as not to alienate these wavering politicians?
Those expecting some of Spielberg's trademark flourishes will be surprised to find a film that, bar the odd moment such as a brutal battle between black soldiers and the Confederacy at the start, is mostly set indoors with masses of dark brown furniture and low lighting. The sweeping camera movements and pans have been dispensed with too as Spielberg is in full mature, serious film maker mode here. It's a shame as this is a film that could really do with the odd flourish - instead, we're left with a film that mostly consists of men with silly facial hair talking at each other about the same thing, for two and a half hours. Yes, this was a pivotal moment in American history and the political shenanigans are mildy entertaining but this is a film that shouts 'this is important' at you (not helped by John Williams cloddingly obvious score) which is never a good thing. For a film that goes on for ever, it still manages to gloss over Lincoln's offer to write slavery into the Constitution earlier on and the fact that his Emancipation Proclamation was largely inspired by the need to seek support from Europe. These inclusions would have made Lincoln a braver film but we'll probably never see an American film maker shoot it.
There is some attempt to suggest 'Honest Abe' was not a saint, not least in a scene where his wife Mary (a great turn from Sally Field playing a conflicted tough yet vulnerable woman) where she reminds him that he once almost had her put in a madhouse after the death of their youngest son, but Spielberg's heart really isn't in it and we're soon back to Lincoln fighting to end slavery again. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also underused as Lincoln's eldest son Robert, who defies his dad to enlist in the army in a role that feels tacked on at best. Lincoln's seeming indifference to one son is in stark contrast to his devotion to his other surviving lad and one of the most charming scenes has the old man laying on the floor next to his sleeping boy to wake him, letting the lad climb on his back and then carrying him to bed, leaving his battered old slippers behind.
The film is full of great actors as befits a film of this stature. Jared Harris gives us a suitably gruff General Grant while Hal Holbrook (who played Lincoln years before) is effortlessly classy as a wily old Senator. Tommy Lee Jones does what he always does (but he does do it well, doesn't he?) and Straitharn gives a typically nuanced performance as Lincoln's long suffering political partner. Of course, Day-Lewis eclipses all of them, just as we'd expect him to. He may be a Method bore (one wonders if he did without electricity for six months) but it works and not only does he bare an uncanny resemblance to the President in question but his whole demeanour, physicality and vocal delivery seem so right that you forget that no-one knows if Lincoln actualy moved or sounded like that. He will get his Oscar and, truthfully, you'd be hard pressed to begrudge him it. He is utterly compelling, so much so that his performance hides the fact that he's given endless speeches and stories to deliver from screenwriter Tony Kushner. It is a testament to his skill that he manages to breathe life into every one and Lincoln would be a much harder slog had another actor been cast.
Lincoln is a handsome film with a central performance near to perfection but it is a film that is leisurely to say the least and, some would say, a little boring at times. Perhaps it is because it is not our story; to an American this would resonate in a way that it can't with a British audience. More likely it is because Lincoln remains, along with JFK, American royalty and impossible to capture without the reverance Americans hold him in. Yes, you can suggest the halo was a tad tarnished but you can never take it off. This inherent worthiness, a problem I find in much of Spielberg's 'serious' work, means that, for all the attention to period detail and dialogue, Lincoln never really seems like a person, more a myth made flesh while the film is easy to admire but less easy to love.
GK Rating: *** The Blog of Delights
No comments:
Post a Comment