If it's blood you're after this holiday season, you're better off hitting that Macy's post-Christmas sale than you are catching Paul Thomas Anderson's new, mis-titled film, There Will Be Blood. But what the film lacks in violence it will more than make up for come Oscar time.

Devoid of attractive 20-somethings (Cigarettes & Coffee) and prosthetic genitals (Boogie Nights), this taut epic is something entirely new for director Paul Thomas Anderson. It's closer in tone to the recent hit No Country For Old Men, and embraces much of that film's somber, pensive approach. As such, it is a stark and perfect canvas for the film's formidable star, Daniel Day-Lewis.

Stripped also of the bloated socialist underpinnings of the film's source material, Upton Sinclair's Oil!, Anderson dives into pre-dust bowl America and delivers a smart discourse on greed and religion. Daniel Day-Lewis expectantly delivers the performance of his impeccable career as a money-hungry oil man, and Paul Dano, best known as the mute teenager in Little Miss Sunshine, turns out to be a much better actor than we figured in his portrayal of a young holy man and rival to Day-Lewis.

If at times the movie feels like it's trying too hard to be a "very important film," it is quickly saved by Jonny Greenwood's (he of Radiohead) deft score, which helps guide the film from its occasionally over-austere moments. And given the hyper-indulged "spirit of the season," austerity, in all its forms, must be stopped whenever possible.