Day
29 Lincoln [2012]
Screenplay Tony Kushner
Based on ‘Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of
Abraham Lincoln’ by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Director Steven Spielberg
Cinematography Janusz Kamiński
Music John Williams
Leads Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Joseph
Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones
Production DreamWorks Pictures, 20th
Century Fox, Reliance Entertainment, Participant Media, Amblin Entertainment,
The Kennedy/Marshall Company
IMDb 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes 90%
I’ll
get straight into it and say I got bored watching this. Yes, it was nominated
for twelve Academy Awards and yes Day-Lewis is fantastic in it, but when does a
huge production directed by Spielberg ever not get a load of nominations and
when is Day-Lewis not incredible? We all have heard that Day-Lewis went full method
for this one, getting the crew to address him as ‘Mr President’ and essentially
staying in character for three months. No wonder he won his third Oscar as he
is spine-tinglingly brilliant in this, he draws you in as you hang on his every
word. However, for me he rather eclipsed the rest of the film, whenever he
wasn’t on screen the film felt dull and I found myself checking how long was
left. It’s a hugely important moment in American history so perhaps to a US
audience it was more exciting, but for me it was a muesli, margarita pizza and plain
rich tea biscuits type of film. Don’t get your hopes up, but you should
probably watch it just for DDL.
Acting 4 / 4
Writing 3 / 4
Cinematography 3 / 4
Music 2 / 4
HWF rating 2.5 / 4