Movie Review: Lincoln (2012)

It seems rare nowadays that Steven Spielberg makes a great movie, but this is at least his best since Munich, and possibly his best since Saving Private Ryan. It’s not the biopic you’d expect; it’s much more narrowly focused, which I think makes it more enjoyable.

It’s not exactly a great movie visually, but the performances and the script definitely make it great. Daniel Day-Lewis, the greatest actor of all time, is of course perfect as Abraham Lincoln, and he’s backed by a stellar cast that includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Adam Driver, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn, John Hawkes, and Tommy Lee Jones in what I think is his best performance.

Everyone is really great in it except for Sally Field, basically.

To be fair to her, it’s a hard role, and the movie doesn’t spend a lot of time on the Mary Todd character, so perhaps if she could have been more fleshed out, it would have been better.

In addition to the acting, I really can’t say enough about the writing. The screenplay was written by legendary playwright Tony Kushner, and it’s incredibly witty and clever. It’s a far funnier movie than you’d expect.

Rating: 8/10