Atomic Fangirl

Ima say it; I can’t stand Daniel Day-Lewis.  Dammit, he makes me hate him!  He has a grand and glorious career, much of that playing total douchebags.  And he’s so fucking good at what he does he’s got me believing all of it.  From A Room With A View’s priggy Cecil and The Crucible‘s spineless John Proctor to vicious Bill The Butcher in Gangs of New York and self-absorbed Guido in Nine.  And let’s not forget the total psychotic nightmare that is Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood.  Even his hair was too good for us all in Last of the Mohicans.  Damn you DDL!

But sometimes Day-Lewis uses his powers for good.  Lincoln is a shining example.  Day-Lewis doesn’t give an electric performance, he brings the man that was our 16th President back to life.  The man, not the historial clichés.  No marble statues here, this Lincoln is a guy you’d want to share a few drinks with, a man you’d be proud to call friend, and a leader that worked his damn ass off every which way he could to further the cause of freedom for all.  Aw DDL, I can’t stay mad at you.

Lincoln the film is based on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by historian/biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, and paints a picture of the last four years of the President’s life.  And lemme tell you, it wasn’t just Gettysburg Address +Emancipation Proclimation = Success.  Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner (you may remember him from a little something called Angels In America) are able to take the nearly thousand pages of Goodwin’s work, grasp the heart of it, and present it to us warts and all.  Yes, Lincoln was a good man and a great president, but Lincoln shows us that even the best of men have to do a little bit of backdoor negotiations in order to effect radical positive change.

Watching all that maneuvering is a pleasure with the cast Day-Lewis is surrounded by.  First off there’s Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln; a woman that was dealing with illness (she’s said to have suffered from bipolar disorder and migraines, along with a carriage accident that could have only exacerbated her conditions) but still had backbone enough to stand up to those that would see her husband fail.  It’s a great character and a great performance.  Other performances in a tidal wave of awesomeness include:

* James Spader as “political operative” W. N. Bilbo: ah, lobbyists.  Where would we be without ‘em?  In Lincoln, we could very well have still been debating slavery, and without Spader’s Bilbo viewers wouldn’t have quite as much fun watching the political machinery turn.  (This character shouldn’t be confused with the bigoted politician Theodore G. Bilbo, btw.)  And Spader should wear crazy vests with suspenders all the time.  He makes ’em work.

* Tommy Lee Jones as Radical Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens: it’s a crazy world we live in when we look at history and see that Republicans were the liberals of their day, and the Dems a bunch of cave-dwelling bigots.  Jones positively chomps at the bit with this juicy role, but also delivers a sweetness, as when he’s with his “housemaid” (read: undercover wife) Lydia Smith, played by the amazing S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order).

* David Strathairn as Secretary of State William H. Seward: I always think “Folly” when I think of Seward, but before buying Sarah Palin’s home state he was Lincoln’s advisor, a staunch supporter of the abolition of slavery but a calmer voice than Stevens.  It’s fun to see Strathairn literally let his hair down here.

* Jack Earle Haley as Alexander H. Stephens: as the Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, Haley gives a performance lets you see Stephens’ pride as well as his realization of the state of his Confederate union.  It’s a brief performance but by no means small.

Not only are the performances stellar here, but damn if the actors don’t look like the folks they’re portraying.  Much has been made of Day-Lewis’ transformation into Honest Abe, but do yourself a favor and Wiki some of the historical folks seen in this film.  You’ll be shocked, but in the very best way.  Kudos to the entire makeup crew on this film; though I’m always rooting for genre work to get their due in the Makeup category come Oscar season, this year I’ll be rooting for the folks that put in their blood sweat and pancake for Lincoln.

Perhaps what I love best about this film is it’s unflinching disregard for stupidity.  Lincoln takes you by the hand and you’ve gotta keep up.  Luckily, you’re also going to want to stare raptly at the screen to watch the amazing performances, so that won’t be a problem.  But this film doesn’t spoonfeed, and it doesn’t spell it out for you.  This is a film that you have to focus on.  Use your brain; it expects you to have the wherewithall to think.  And that’s refreshing as hell.

Lincoln rewards you for your attention as it sucks you into the very life and breath of the US of A in 1865.  The sets, props, costumes, even the battlefields are pitch-perfect in historical accuracy, and it made me feel like I could step through the screen and into the action.  The opening scene — a mashup of Saving Private Ryan’s D-Day and Gone With The Wind’s shot of the wounded at the Battle of Atlanta — is a mad dash of close-up and medium-shots in strange angles, giving you a feeling that you’re tossing around with ‘em.

It’s November, officially the start of the Oscar race.  With Thanksgiving weekend well-known for getting folks out of the house and into the multiplex, there are plenty of contenders chomping at the bit (I’m looking at you, Argo, Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook).  But there’s no need to hold a space open for Lincoln; it’s already in.