LINCOLN

Coming off a less than stellar commercial and critical performance with last year’s underrated ‘War Horse’, Steven Spielberg fervently returns in 2012 with ‘Lincoln’.  Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, the film chronicles the last four years of Lincoln’s life and his efforts to pass the Thirteenth Amendment prior to end of the Civil War, worrying if not passed; governing bodies would deem his Emancipation Proclamation unlawful.

There’s little left to say about Spielberg considering his body of work.  Like so many of his other largely successful and critically acclaimed efforts Spielberg relies on his ability to dictate the mood by perfectly framing scenes while keeping context, story, and pace in mind.  During the nearly two and a half hour biopic, where other directors would create a bore of a picture, Spielberg consistently has the viewer enthralled with the drama and informed with the history.  Not an easy feat.  The film has a feel reminiscent of ‘Schindler’s List’, where at over three hours in the 1993 epic, there never seems to be a dull, boring, or unnecessary frame in films that use a majority of dialogue to fill up their screen time.  My only quip if I had one was the inclusion of Lincoln’s son, Robert (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), as his scenes did little to contribute to the story and it was Gordon-Levitt’s weakest performance to date considering how successful he has been in the last few years.

However the film really belongs to Day-Lewis, as it should, and this is another aspect indicative to Spielberg’s films; letting actors immerse themselves into their roles and carry films (Liam Neeson in ‘List’, Hanks in ‘Saving Private Ryan’, Ford in ‘Indiana Jones’).  After reading multiple interviews from cast and crew there was an eerie feeling Abraham Lincoln was actually on the set while Day-Lewis got into character, with those around him having to remind themselves this is simply a film and not reality.  For Day-Lewis, well known as a method actor, this is not uncommon but when you are filling the shoes of one of the best known and important figures in American history it rises to another level.  It is hard to compare Day-Lewis’ dialect and mannerisms to Lincoln as so few are experts on how he spoke and acted but from the testaments of historians he does a brilliant job. 

If ‘Lincoln’ every decided to go to Broadway and have Day-Lewis portray Lincoln on stage, people would be lining up to simply see Day-Lewis recite lengthy historical passages, and it would be well worth the price of admission.  For my money I still like Phoenix’s performance in ‘The Master’ more than anything I’ve seen this year but it will be hard to take down Day-Lewis as his performance is definitely worth and he has a bigger studio, bigger following, bigger director, is more beloved by The Academy, and the dude’s playing freaking Lincoln!  If he wins Day-Lewis would become the first three time Academy Award Winner for Best Actor (‘My Left Foot’ and ‘There Will Be Blood’ are the others he’s won for).

Spielberg and Day-Lewis get ample help from Tommy Lee Jones, in an equally powerful role, as radical abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens and Sally Field as Mary Todd, who was a little melodramatic for my taste but still will garner Oscar attention.  As per usual John Williams contributes with a nomination-worthy score. 

As more and more of the big films this year finally open wide the races continue to heat up, however with such a deep field frontrunners are still yet to be determined.  When all is said and done, and nominations are announced in January, look for ‘Lincoln’ to have one of the larger groups of nominees leading to the ceremony in February.

Oscar Chances:

Best Picture: Lock

Best Director (Spielberg): Lock

Best Actor (Day-Lewis): Lock

Best Supporting Actor (Jones): Lock

Best Supporting Actress (Field): Possible

Best Adapted Screenplay (Kushner): Lock

Best Editing: Lock

Best Score (Williams): Lock