‘Lincoln’ Movie Review Roundup: Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis Make President Human, Politics Interesting

One of the most hyped, anticipated movies of the last few years, Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," which the director developed for over seven years, already had a lot riding on it, without even considering its subject. The filmmaker's gumption looks to have paid off, though. "Lincoln" is one of the best reviewed films of the year, and critics seem to agree its Speilberg's best movie in recent memory.

Partly based on the book "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin, "Lincoln" took home a record seven Golden Globe nominations for director Steven Spielberg. The film's nominations included best director, best picture, and best actor honors for Daniel Day-Lewis, best supporting nods for Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field, as well as best screenplay and score. For comparison, Spielberg's classic holocaust film, 1993's "Schindler's List," carried away six Golden Globe nominations.

This certainly suggests "Lincoln" will be taking home at least a few Oscars. Movies nominated for the Best Drama and Best Comedy-Musical categories tend to be a good indication of what will win best picture at the Academy Awards.

As the New York Times recently noted, "The best picture Oscar has mirrored the Globes' choice for best drama or best comedy-musical about two-thirds of the time over the last two decades."

"It's the most remarkable movie Steven Spielberg has made in quite a spell, and one of the things that makes it remarkable is how it fulfills those expectations by simultaneously ignoring and transcending them," said Glenn Kenny in his review for MSN Movies.

"Spielberg stages his scenes with brio, and his camera, manned as usual by Janusz Kaminski, prowls over each strategy playlet with a curiosity that arouses the viewer's own... The stellar cast never misses a trick, and while of course Day-Lewis's portrayal is seamless, striking and new, he does not here dominate the rest of the cast in the same way that he did in, say, 'Gangs of New York' ... 'Lincoln' is an engrossing, genuinely entertaining film that is also an inspiring piece of Americana in the finest sense of the term," he concluded.

Slate doted on Day-Lewis' performance, saying that even in a career already full of mesmerizing roles, his turn as Lincoln is so preternaturally realized it transcends acting, placing the actor in a realm above and beyond theater, art or cinema. Basically: When people talk about acting in the future they will be saying there was a "pre-Day-Lewis" era and a post; he's that good here.

"Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor who is to other actors as Nijinsky was to other dancers of his time: He seems to be engaging in a different art form entirely. Day-Lewis' embodiment of Lincoln is less a portrait than a sculpture. You can walk around it and see different things from different angles. The character is so fully imagined, so lived from the inside out, that we leave feeling we've met and briefly known, if not Lincoln himself, certainly someone real and extraordinary. This isn't a Hollywood-style historical epic, like 'War Horse' or 'Amistad' - it's history on an intimate domestic scale, Lincoln wandering the halls of the White House wrapped in an old wool blanket," wrote Dana Stevens in her review for Slate.

The Dallas Morning News was also knocked back by Day-Lewis' performance, saying it's almost surreal how well he fits into Lincoln's skin.

"Lincoln is a swift master class in realpolitik, a reminder that all backroom deals aren't created equal. Nor are all actors. Every once in a while in Lincoln's 149 minutes, you look past the bearded visage and realize that's Day-Lewis in there. It's an uncanny sensation that only the best of the best can create: a complete and total suspension of disbelief. The movie takes Lincoln down from Mount Rushmore and renders him in bracingly human scale," wrote Chris Vognar for the Dallas Morning News.

"The real thrill of 'Lincoln' lies in the fine art of twisting arms and forging compromise. This is Washington, after all. Everybody wants something. It's hard to think of another movie that takes such pleasure in the elbow grease of politics, the all-out push to accomplish something for the greater good. 'Lincoln' is a stirring reminder that politics can be noble," he noted.