Daniel Plainview engages in a battle of wills with another benevolent, power-hungry man named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano). In exchange for $500, Sunday gives Plainview the location of a rich oil deposit in the small town of Little Boston. Daniel arrives in town to find Paul's twin brother Eli (also played by Paul Dano) who is the town's fire-and-brimstone preacher. Eli convinces his father Abel (David Willis) to sell Plainview their land for oil drilling, on the condition that Daniel make a sizable donation to Eli's Church of the Third Revelation. Is Eli's motivation strictly one of religious belief or is he, like his brother, driven by greed? That question remains unanswered as Daniel buys the land and continues his pursuit for oil.

Predictably, Daniel and Eli clash at every turn. Plainview forestalls paying his drilling fees to Eli and this escalates to a beat-down in the mud. Given Daniel's need for absolute power, the feud eventually ends the only way it can: with a humiliating purification ceremony and the most violent scene showing little blood I've seen in a long time.

There Will Be Blood is a powerful film. Daniel Day-Lewis seemed to become Daniel Plainview which lends an air of true authenticity to the film that is hard to ignore. Paul Dano deserves kudos as well for his portrayal of Eli's own conversion into a different kind of power-hungry individual. Sunday finds his power at the pulpit. He thrives on his ability to make people think he has a personal communication with God.

There Will Be Blood plays up the conflicts between religion and power. The question of religion comes up early in the film when Eli's brother Paul asks Daniel his faith. Lying, Daniel says he embraces all religions. It's never really clear why Paul went to Daniel in the first place or why Eli battled Daniel at every turn. In the case of young H.W., did Daniel really use him as a ploy to get land and sympathy or are they really related? These specific questions are never answered, which left some holes in the film.

There Will Be Blood gets off track in the last forty-five minutes or so of the film. By this time, Plainview is a pitiful shell of a man. Emotionally and physically crippled, Daniel has pushed away everything in his life but the oil. The undoing of those around him seems like one last shot for a story that was over in Little Boston. Few films at 158 minutes, even fairly good ones, can maintain a high standard throughout. I felt like There Will Be Blood got caught up in being an "epic" and strayed from the strength of the story once Eli was removed from the proceedings for a good chunk of the film.