Angel in America

Lincoln

**½ out of ****

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, David Strathairn and James Spader

Running time: 149 minutes

Lincoln has the most misleading title of any motion picture released this year. Although it features legendary method actor (and double Oscar winner) Daniel Day-Lewis in an iconic role – one that stands in firm opposition to his usual teeth-gritting intensity and flair – Lincoln is flat and uninvolving as a study of the 16th president.

Like another bloodless Spielberg war film of last winter, War Horse, Lincoln’s technical precision and performances are solid enough to garner it many end-of-year nominations, but likely not the strength to compile it any statuettes.

It is a sentimental drama that delves deeper into the 19th century political process than with the characters, making it a terrific pedagogical tool for high school American history classes. Conveniently, Spielberg opens the film with Lincoln (Day-Lewis) hovering over a crowd of soldiers (including those played by Dane DeHaan and David Oyelowo) who recite, for him, memorized passages from the Gettysburg Address. They proclaim his greatness on the audience’s behalf.

Spielberg shies away from showing the bloodshed between Union and Confederate armies but instead focuses on the warring battles between Republicans and Democrats as they jeer and cheer in the House of Representatives. The matter of business is the 13th amendment, which would outlaw slavery but may deter the end of the war.

Lincoln requires unanimous Republican support (which, at that time, was a rarity) and needs to procure votes from Democrats for the amendment to pass. He hires three lobbyists (played by James Spader, John Hawkes and Tim Blake Nelson) to whip up bipartisan support.

The scenes of political impertinence as the three try to sway Democratic voters are sharp, like a 19th century episode of The West Wing. Tony Kushner’s script is as verbose and impassioned as the dialogue from that series.

Lincoln may be a civics lesson, but it is a finely acted one. Day-Lewis sinks so deeply into the character, nailing the president’s high lilt and hobbled walk, that he becomes invisible beneath the beard and makeup. The actor saves his regular flair for many charming tales he recites to his allies. These stories are captivating in their delivery, to the extent that Janusz Kaminski’s camera can move delicately from a wide shot to close-up, without one noticing the change in camera position until the end of the speech.

The supporting cast is equally strong: Sally Field as the fiercely loving and supportive First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, David Strathairn as the intelligent if prickly Secretary of State William Seward, and best of all, Tommy Lee Jones as the quick-witted abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens, the Republican Congressional leader who viciously debates for slaves’ rights in the House.

True to the period, the film - which has most of its scenes indoors - gets its light source  from white glares in the windows. There is enough backlight to show off the austere, meticulously designed sets. Outdoors scenes are less frequent but have the same brown hues of the interior scenes, except for the omnipresent American flag that gleams brightly against the ash-filled backgrounds.

Lincoln feels like an award-winning five-hour television miniseries that is awkwardly compressed by half its running time, with the main history intact but the characters slighted on the story’s behalf. While the film ought to woo Academy voters with its formidable performances and decoration, it is often listless and plodding, exclaiming the president’s political genius without revealing much about him.