91% Lincoln

All Critics (181) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (164) | Rotten (17)

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.

Lincoln paints a powerful and compelling portrait of the man who has become an icon. We don't need to see more of his life to understand how rare a figure he was - this window is more than sufficient.

Lincoln offers proof of what magic can happen when an actor falls in love with his character. Because as great as Day-Lewis has been in his many parts, he has never seemed quite so smitten.

The film masterfully captures the dual dilemmas facing the president in the final months of his life: how to bring the war between the states to an end, and how to eradicate slavery, once and for all.

Lincoln is a stirring reminder that politics can be noble. Might there be a lesson here for today's shrill D.C. discourse? 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Day-Lewis' voice is thin and reedy, which jibes with historical accounts but subverts our expectations. His attitude makes listeners lean in, and so do we, magnetized by his kindly reserve.

This is an almost religiously revered president portrayed as he's never been portrayed on screen before, a tale told with grace and sophistication. If only for this fact alone, Lincoln is a work deserving of praise.

Especially in today's frustratingly gridlocked political environment, Lincoln is timelier than ever. It gives us hope that government can accomplish great things even as it drags itself through the muck and strain of corruption.

While Spielberg captures a time, Day-Lewis captures another brilliant performance, and some of the supporting actors may capture Oscar nominations, the film didn't capture my soul the way I was hoping.

The film presents Abraham Lincoln's deliberations as a function of his innate morality, as well as an emotional rightness.

A fascinating history lesson taking place mostly in the backrooms of Washington.

Good film, but 'Lincoln' is not a movie about Abraham Lincoln - it's about a man in an Abe costume posing as someone who had overwhelming love for African-Americans, when in reality that was far from the Lincoln documented in history.

It's a superior achievement for Kushner, and makes for one of the best of Spielberg's "serious" movies.

A paternalistic Lincoln who freed the slaves? Bad movie and worse politics...

An Oscar-ready historical masterpiece that does double duty as a history lesson and as a reminder of the paralytic limitations of a house divided.

Spielberg's Lincoln shows us that the nasty in-fighting of American party politics is not restricted to the modern era.?

A talky, 150-minute affair but not without interesting modern-day ironies and parallels. One needs to take the one-sided history depicted with a grain of salt.

If this exquisite, immersive, fully entertaining, dramatized account of real events can't get you excited about history... nothing will.

Day-Lewis' wise, rustic, gnarled Lincoln truly seems a creature from another age; remarkably, there's no vanity in the actor's somewhat hobbled gait or high, thin voice.

There is directorial mastery here, and, even for those like me for whom the power of Lincoln is a percolating realization, one thing is certain: The performance by Daniel Day-Lewis is astonishing.

Daniel Day-Lewis reaches new acting heights as Lincoln while Sally Field matches him talent for talent as Mary Todd Lincoln.

This is a surprisingly bad movie.

Never before in American cinema have politics and poetry combined to make such spellbinding bedfellows.

[Day-Lewis] brings humanity and warmth to a man too often made static by history.

The weight of history is certainly present in every scene, but so are the undeniable correlations between past and present that make it feel so immediate and pertinent.

The very talented cast of this film is put to good use, thanks to Spielberg's sure direction and a strong script, written by Tony Kushner ('Munich').

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lincoln_2011/

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