I quite liked this film. I love slow and dry films, particularly if they're period pieces. Needless to say this reminded me a tad of 'There Will Be Blood', in part because I feel Daniel Day-Lewis took a little bit of Daniel Plainview into Abraham Lincoln. Of course there are aesthetic connections too; both films are roughly in the same era and have a gritty feel to them.

At any rate, Day-Lewis gives an outstanding performance, as does pretty much everyone else in this picture, most notably Tommy Lee Jones.

On the downside, I felt the 'switcheroo' at the end was uncalled for and the ending, as a result, could have been more powerful. Also, most commercials I've seen for this film depict it as a historic epic, which is why a friend of mine expected more battle scenes (of which there are virtually none). I'd also like to add that I felt the beginning was quite slow indeed, the first 30 minutes or so were a bit chewy.

This is an overall good film but it's just shy of greatness, which is why I awarded it 4 stars.