No Country For Old Men Reviewed

My DVD of No Country arrived today. It has minimal extras but I’ll be checking them out and maybe reconsidering some of my thoughts on first viewing. So in lieu of my DVD thoughts here’s my orginal review.

The Coen brothers’ talent has been in a small slump. An 8 film streak from Blood Simple in 1984 to O Brother Where Art Thou? in 2000 includes some of the most imaginative funny and thrilling films ever made. While plenty people more intelligent than I loved The Man Who Wasn’t There, few would express love for Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. These last two films while entertaining lacked the soulful undercurrent that engaged so well in previous work. No Country For Old Men (to get it out the way right of the bat) is perhaps their best film yet.

As the trailer tells you Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss, who stumbles upon a huge amount of drug money amongst the remnants of a huge shoot out in the Texas desert. Javier Bardem playing Anton Chigurh is one of the scariest cold-blooded bad guys that’s been seen on film in years. He’s been sent to track down the cash and exudes unstable but coldly calculated menace. Meanwhile Tommy Lee Jones is Sheriff Bell the man trying to make sense of the brutality laid before him.

Nothing in that synopsis would draw you to the conclusion that this is any different from other Coen films but the execution is not quite so straightforward. Effectively there are three stories being told. Llewelyn and his wife (surprisingly very well underplayed by Kelly Macdonald) move to escape Anton’s wrath. He plays it smart and spends much of the film alone on the run from one place to the next, never scared of Anton or the Mexican drug dealers. His matter of fact approach to the situation almost unthinkable faced with the odds. Brolin plays it mostly straight, a man who has caught the glimpse of a dream and refuses to let it go. His practical intelligence keeps things plausible, this is a man with the will and the smarts to keep going.

Anton on the other hand leaves a trail of destruction across the state. Bardem plays the part exceptionally he is a force of nature bemused by the flippant way people treat their lives not knowing they were in the presence of a man sharing genes with death himself.

While the good Sheriff is diametrically opposed to the world he finds himself in. Nearing retirement his reflective journey is the emotional core of the film. The world as he sees it has left him behind.

The main characters are all impeccably acted by a great cast. No one gets a chance to overact their way to the forefront. While Bardem’s presence is difficult to top he is only one part of the whole. The three leads (honestly) are a holy trinity, the details of each’s story is what holds everything together.

Almost everything is underplayed here acting, characters, story, and directing. There is perhaps not many moments of the visual flare that peppers the Coen’s work, rather a more subtle take that keeps things interesting without distracting.

While previous films might lead you to expect cartoonish exaggerated characters, black humour, perhaps some more interesting subtexts for the thinkers, and some creative thriller like stories No Country refuses to allow you to ignore any of these aspects. The older films could easily exist on these levels simultaneously but not paying attention to one aspect was not punished No Country is not so forgiving. In fact I want to see it again as soon as possible. This is a film that rewards close viewing and if perhaps some of my praise seems a bit effusive it’s because my mind is still spinning through details. I keep trying to crack its puzzles, it’s been so long since a film got under my skin like that.

10/10