( EW.com ) -- As the title character of Steven Spielberg 's solemnly transfixing `` Lincoln , '' Daniel Day-Lewis is tall and elegantly stooped , with thatchy gray-black hair , sunken cheeks , and a grin that tugs at the corners of his mouth whenever he tries to win someone over by telling them a good story ( which is often ) . Day-Lewis looks so much like the photographs of Abraham Lincoln that you do n't have to squint , even a bit , to buy that it 's him . He nails Lincoln 's thousand-yard stare — a gaze directed at once inward ( at the whir of his own mental machinery ) and outward ( at the cosmic hum of history ) . Day-Lewis ' performance has a beautiful gravitas , yet there 's nothing too severe about it . He gives Lincoln a surprisingly plainspoken , reedy high voice that retains the courtly cadences of the South . That voice — from everything we know , it 's quite accurate — makes Lincoln sound like Will Rogers as a professor of human nature . This Lincoln lives deep inside his own unruly-haired head , yet he loves the people around him , even the ignorant ( and racist ) common folk , who repay the favor by loving him back . And that 's where he draws his political force . Photos : 'Lincoln ' extras pose for portraits . `` Lincoln , '' which Spielberg has directed from a lyrical , ingeniously structured screenplay by Tony Kushner , is one of the most authentic biographical dramas I 've ever seen . But that does n't mean it 's a stiff-jointed history lesson . The movie is grand and immersive . It plugs us into the final months of Lincoln 's presidency with a purity that makes us feel transported as though by time machine . ( Kushner is the husband of EW columnist Mark Harris . ) Most of the film unfolds in January 1865 , shortly after Lincoln 's reelection , when he knows that the North is going to win the Civil War . The real battle for him now is the fight against slavery . Three commissioners from the Confederacy head up to Washington City , and Lincoln is confident that he could have their surrender within a week . But before that can happen , he is driven to pass the 13th Amendment , which would outlaw slavery . The Democrats hate the amendment , and even Lincoln 's liberal Republican comrades want him to delay the vote . Only Lincoln grasps the stakes : that once the Civil War is over , the amendment wo n't pass — it will be blocked by the Southern states . Winning the war could prove a Pyrrhic victory . Only by threading the amendment through the eye of a legislative needle can he alter the course of history . Lincoln features a great deal of incendiary speech-making on the floor of the House of Representatives , and Kushner 's script , which is based in part on the Doris Kearns Goodwin book Team of Rivals : The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln , has a lot of fun weaving insults of astonishing brazenness into oratory that lays bare the issues in all their gripping moral complexity . Spielberg , denying himself visual fireworks , frames the action with a kind of stately tension . He thrillingly demythologizes Lincoln by placing us inside Lincoln 's experience — shut up by himself ( or with his querulous cabinet ) in the drab meeting rooms of the White House , or in his bedroom with the ambitious , haunted Mary Todd Lincoln ( Sally Field ) , who still blames Abe for the death of their son Willie . Field 's performance is shattering — in a few furious scenes , she redefines this First Lady as a woman whose supposed madness reflected a humane fervor as sterling as her husband 's . As the congressional fight rages on , `` Lincoln '' orchestrates it all . He seduces , cajoles , begs , and tyrannizes . He offers patronage jobs — bribes — to the Democratic congressmen who support slavery . He courts but also tamps down the influence of Thaddeus Stevens ( Tommy Lee Jones ) , the abolitionist who 's so possessed by the cause that he might alienate any congressman on the fence . And through it all , Lincoln must delay the war 's end — without breaking the people 's faith . The Lincoln we see here is that rare movie creature , a heroic thinker . He has the serpentine intellect of a master lawyer , infused with a poet 's passion . `` Lincoln '' brilliantly dramatizes the delicacy of politics , along with the raw brutality of it . All that 's pushing the amendment forward is Abe Lincoln 's will , his ability to do anything — even flirt with impeachable deceptions — to fulfill his vision of justice . And that 's why he spends the movie alone in spirit . When he bangs his hand on the table , roaring at his lobbyists to procure him the votes he needs because he 's `` clothed in immense power , '' we 're seeing the birth of the presidency as we know it — a force that can shape the consciousness of the world . Lincoln is a stirring paradox , a dream of history as it might truly have happened . See the original article at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Day - Lewis ' ' has a beautiful quality , yet there 's nothing too severe about it . He gives Lincoln a surprisingly plainspoken , reedy high note that retains the courtly cadences of the South . ` ` Lincoln '' brilliantly captures the power of slavery , along with the raw ##ness of it .