Oscars preview: first reviews for Spielberg’s Lincoln

Steven Spielberg’s biopic Lincoln got a surprise screening on October 8 at the New York Film Festival, where it was met with mixed reviews. Some of the early reviews of the film confirm its status as one of the leading candidates in the race to the Oscars, and say that Daniel Day Lewis,

who already has two Academy Awards for best actor under his belt, is as impressive as ever as the sixteenth President of the United States.
“Daniel Day Lewis is guaranteed another Oscar nomination and frankly, we can’t imagine anyone beating him out of winning his third Oscar, not even Joaquin Phoenix, who was so great in The Master,” according to Edward Douglas’s assessment on Comingsoon.net.
The British actor’s performance is not the film’s only strong suit, however: “I think it stands a very strong shot for further noms for best supporting actor Tommy Lee Jones, who plays the powerful Republican congressman Thaddeus Stevens and best supporting actress Sally Field, who appears as Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. And I also expect Spielberg’s incomparable stock company of below-the-line craftsmen — cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, film editor Michael Kahn, composer John Williams, et. al. — to garner their usual noms as well,” writes Scott Feinberg in The Hollywood Reporter.Presented by Steven Spielberg himself, the surprise screening of Lincoln also got a fair share of less enthusiastic reviews by outlets that believe it won’t necessarily turn into Oscars: “it’s an extremely well written and crafted film that requires quite a bit of patience in order to have any sort of emotional impact, but offers fantastic performances, impressive production design and cinematography,” concludes Comingsoon.net.
“Lincoln has occasional sparks, some tremendous actors doing estimable work, and its “climax” is perhaps the most dynamic and thrilling representation of a body of people voting on any law in the history of film. But it’s also, at least in this “unfinished” form, not especially remarkable, enjoyable or wholly compelling,” analyzes Rodrigo Perez in The Playlist.
The movie is set to hit North American theaters on November 16.