The Blot was pretty excited to see the new Coen Brothers’ movie No Country For Old Men ever since seeing the trailer for it a few months ago. I love Joel and Ethan Coen (Barton Fink, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers) and have intently followed their careers ever since seeing The Big Lebowski. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Fargo and haven’t seen Raising Arizona a million times, but come on, you just can’t top The Dude.
Don’t worry, I won’t give away any spoilers or plot points in this post except to say that the description of the movie’s story line on IMDB is pretty accurate, “Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.” (Link) The movie is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy and the story is as riveting as it is bloody. Like all Coen Brothers’ movies the dialogue is the best part and the casting of the movie was spot on. Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls) is the star of the movie for his portrayal of the psychotic Anton Chigurh. His transformation into the relentless Chigurh is amazing and terrifying all at once. He reminds me of Jack Nicholson’s Joker in the original Batman…a character so off kilter you never know what he is going to do next.
The biggest surprise of the movie to me was Josh Brolin (The Goonies, In The Valley Of Ellah) as Llewelyn Moss. While I can’t claim to have seen all of his work, his role as the hunter who stumbles upon a drug deal gone bad was amazing and possibly the greatest role of his career. I’d be shocked if he wasn’t on many critics’ Best Of Lists come awards season. The movie is really portrayed through Llewelyn’s eyes and gives the movie its greatest suspense. Unfortunately the star of the movie, Tommy Lee Jones, isn’t on screen near enough but does a very good job tying all of the different subplots together and fleshing out the story of violence raging through this small Texas community.
All in all the movie was great except for the last 5 minutes where the movie, in my opinion, kind of flames out. When the credits hit the sold out movie theater gasped but not in a good way. Most of the movie patrons were shocked that the movie had ended. Even after all of the different story lines finally converged, the audience seemed to want more. And then nothing happened. I felt like I was watching the last episode of The Sopranos all over again. The big resolution that everyone was hoping for or expected never happened and I think that left the audience unfulfilled. If you’re worried about the ending ruining the movie going experience then I recommend waiting for it to come out on DVD, but if you enjoy the Joel and Ethan Coen’s dialogue and filmmaking as much as I do then I definitely recommend checking out No Country For Old Men. Just be prepared for lots of blood, which I definitely wasn’t.
