I liked the way the film was photographed....looked like some use of video format or whatever.coloring and angle's gave it a typical atmosphere which i could enjoy . liked the 'literary' darkness.... and enjoyed the use of music. But.....the story....either not a good story or not being handled good by Anderson.a bit of a mess.... all the time i kept hoping that there would be some sense in the things that happened in the movie.I still don't know. Am i right believing that the main message is that evil prevails? if so , the evil is not evil enough in the Plainview character and the good in the other folks is not clear enough too. maybe i did't got it.. but that's not necessarily my fault.