Ding..ding..ding! We have our first Oscar lock performance of the year.  Maybe the movie will get a nod, but definitely one for Daniel Day Lewis as our 16^th President and ardent Republican Abraham Lincoln.  You’ll be mesmerized and asking yourself, like me, how does he do that?  Lincoln is a good movie, but Day-Lewis’ performance will have you cheering.  B+

Let’s get it straight, this movie is not your Spielberg mega box office smash film, it’s more like a History Channel documentary with a much better budget and absolutely superb re-enactors.  It’ll get kudos from the reviewing world but it won’t make zillions.  The upside is I can envision it being used in school curriculum for teaching Lincoln years from now.

Lincoln follows the closing years of the Civil War sans 1865ish.  The Emancipation Proclamation had already been signed for over a year.  Lincoln had just won re-election and mounting casualties from the War from within The North & The South fanned political pressure to seek a cease fire and truce, and not to devote time to amending the Constitution to abolish slavery.

Now of course Daniel Day Lewis (Gangs Of New York) was amazing, and by amazing, I mean it had me wishing there were original audio-video recordings or something in existent to use as a reference for his interpretation of the former President, husband and family man.  He showed the difficulty of Lincoln, and not just his work towards the Amendment but his own variant of the dysfunctional family.  The oft tempered wife, the doting youngest son, the belligerent and stubborn eldest – I mean, the man had problems AND he worked towards arguably one of the biggest changes and moments in US history.  Lincoln changed the world, and Day-Lewis made me believe that.

As for the supporting cast; Sally Fields (Forrest Gump), Tommy Lee Jones (No Country For Old Men), James Spader (Bad Influence) as WN Bilbo, who could be argued as the nation’s first sleaze ball lobbyist who was amazingly great at his job.  All good performances to me, including Jared Harris (TV’s Mad Men) as Ulysses Grant, but none were stand up enough to take home the statue.  You’ll see noms for Tommy Lee as supporting maybe, but even his performance, however touching and emotional, just wasn’t enough to seal it for me.

It’s a great history lesson, but it’s not a Spielberg epic.  Much could have been done with more engaging and visual war scenes, come on Steven!  A singularly great performance aside, this is your run of the mill Lincoln documentary.

Lincoln is rated PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language.  Running Time 120 minutes.