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So I watched "Shadows and Beards" yesterday (aka Lincoln). Sacrilege alert! I wasn't amazed. Credit to Spielberg for the realism of candlelight in the pre-electricity era, but damn, even the day scenes were dark.

Fine group of actors, some great individual scenes. Sally Field doing her always-solid "Southern crazy" and taciturn Tommy Lee with the SURPRISE ladyfriend reveal. Great costumes, great sets, but LONG and SLOW...

Daniel Day Lewis gets credit for what? Looking thin and tall and dealing with appliances and make-up? He was fine as Lincoln, but it's not like we have recordings to compare him to the real deal. This is inarguably the best produced movie about a sliver of Lincoln's life, but that doesn't make it the best film of the year... by a long shot.

Side note: I have to say, the VERY FIRST scene kinda threw me out of it. To have those two soldiers mosey up to Lincoln's wagon and recite the speech like that? And one admitted that he couldn't even really hear it? Sorry; it felt like Spielbergian manipulation.

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