No Country For Old Men

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never seen a Coen brothers’ movie that I didn’t like. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but I never saw The Ladykillers or Intolerable Cruelty! So it came as no surprise to me that I loved No Country For Old Men. No Country for Old Men is a modern western about the bloody search for stolen drug money. Llewellyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin) does the stealin’, and Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Bardem) does the bloodyin’. Rounded out by Tommy Lee Jones who plays the aging Sheriff Bell, the three leading actors all provide award-caliber performances. I can’t remember a better performance by Jones, but the two more unfamiliar actors are equally if not more amazing.

Bell fills a more passive role – a step behind all the action of Chigurh and Moss’s bloody cat and mouse game. Moss is a modern-day cowboy who finds the money from a drug deal gone bad. Chigurh is a ruthless killer out to recover the money. I don’t like to give away to much of the plot, but suffice it to say that all hell ensues.

Speaking of, if my sister and mother can be any indication, this movie may not be for the squeamish. While the Coens have often used violence in the past as a source of comedy, there is certainly nothing funny about the violence here. And there is a lot of it.

On the other hand, this is not a film that glorifies violence. The violence is ruthless, ugly and incomprehensible. The film presents a bleak view of characters caught up in the machinery of fate that removes any control of the characters over their life or death. Without breaking a sweat, Chigurh dispatches the most innocent of bystanders – and they don’t even see it coming.

All that’s not to say the movie is without humor. There are a few funny moments here and there, but they don’t last long under the weight of the circumstances.

Finally, the movie is impeccably made. The Coens are master filmmakers, and the writing, directing, editing, and cinematography (by DP Roger Deakins) are each firing on all cylinders here. I usually consider editing and directing to be good if I don’t notice them, but the Coens are capable of providing the exception to the rule: uningnorable yet unobtrusive. The Coens also seem to always have great cinematography. The DP certainly deserves a lot of credit, but the consistency across their films indicates the brothers have a part to play in this department.

I’ve already mentioned the acting, but it bears mentioning again. I’ll be disappointed if Brolin and Bardem aren’t both nominated (and I hope one of them wins). Come to think of it, I’d like to see Jones get a nod, too.